The Fate of A Shooting Star: Tilted Axis
by ImpossibleImpact
Summary: Chapter 3 of FASS series: Team Prime's limits are pushed as they are met with the Decepticon's greatest force yet in the race for the remaining Iacon Relics, while Optimus Prime struggles with an unknown, yet fatal illness. Will Team Prime be able to keep the world safe while training a handful of new recruits? And will Aulora be able to find out who, exactly, is invading her mind?
1. Certifiable

**hey hey hey!**

**how yah guys doing? so here's chapter 3 of The Fate of A Shooting Star series! so excited for you guys to read this. this story is a little slow, but I promise it'll get a lot more interesting after this. we also have a new OC debut. **

**I know not many of you read this part, but if there are any, amazing readers out there who do ( :) ) I need some help. I Copy-N-Paste my stories from a word document. Up until about a few weeks ago, I was able to insert those page lines so I could separate different shifts in scenes. However, the button is no longer there for me. If any of you know how to insert it some other way or you have any information on why this is happening, I would greatly appreciate the help. **

**so just sit back, relax, and I hope this story pleases the mind :) please comment**

_Previously on The Fate of A Shooting Star_

_"Hi. My name is Nova and this here is my colleague, Prevus…we guard the Zeta Relics… there would be a human in particular we would have to find when we would eventually land on this planet."_

_"You mean I was played!? You're telling me Cliffjumper pretended to be hurt just so my aunt would bring him home to me!? Did he even like me!? Or was he just pretending the whole time, making sure he completed his mission!?"_

_"I forgive you…If it's going to start, let it be with me. I forgive you for scaring the scrap out of me, for scratching up my patio stone and for staining it blue."_

_She felt her insides roll like dead, raw meat onto the cold, hard ground beneath, as her wide eyes beheld the medic angled over her leader…her guardian's body as he pounded two large defibrillator extensions onto Optimus's chest, blue sparks igniting along their surfaces._

_Her ears echoed with the paralyzing ringing of Optimus's spark monitor, a straight line dancing across the screen._

"Optimus, respond!" Ratchet explained, pure fear swimming in his eyes. He quickly turned back to the monitor, watching anxiously for any small movement across the screen.

"Ratchet, do something!" Arcee exclaimed, frantically.

Ratchet turned back to Optimus and connected the pulsing defibrillator extensions with Optimus's chest once more. The blue electricity danced once more, but the Prime stayed motionless.

"How did this happen!? He was fine up until now!" Bulkhead demanded, shaking at the sight of Optimus's closed eyes and slightly agape mouth.

"Optimus!" Ratchet yelled once more, pounding the extensions with even more force onto his leader's chest. The team turned back to his spark monitor, watching as the ominous horizontal line continued its path across the screen. Suddenly, everyone simultaneously jumped at the sound of a small beep, watching with relief as a small spike peaked from its flat travel. A large sigh was released, everyone's tense bodies noticeably relaxing as the weight of worry slipped off their shoulders like a coat.

Ratchet quickly went to work attaching numerous patches and tubes to Optimus's frame, as the rest of the team turned to each other with expecting eyes, one question prominent in all of their minds.

_What in the world had just happened?_

Miko was the first to break the hesitant silence.

"Did I miss something!? I thought Boss bot just got poked in the shoulder!" she shouted out with her hands dramatically in the air, mainly to Ratchet, who was still bustling around Optimus's still frame.

"I thought he was just…resting," Jack said, running a trembling hand nervously through his hair. Everyone was clearly shaken, the menacing sound of the young Prime's monotonous-toned spark monitor still haunting their minds. It was a thought none of them wanted to reflect on for another moment.

_"You were the one that called us over here, Cee. What happened?"_ Bumblebee asked, turning to the small femme beside him.

She twitched her shoulder struts upward in a shrug, keeping her trembling gaze on her leader.

"I…I don't know. I came over to check up on him, and at first, his spark rate was fine…steady…so were his vitals. Then, the next second, he completely flat-lined," she replied meekly, her voice barely audible. Bumblebee placed a comforting hand over her shoulder.

"How could he have gone from sleeping to…dying," Raf asked, still trying to grasp what had just happened before him.

"There was no excessive blood loss, no major Energon veins were punctured…so there's something I missed," Ratchet replied, finally looking up from his old friend to address his still anxious team members.

"It's a virus."

The team turned, suddenly, behind them to find a small, trembling Aulora, her eyes spilling over with tears. She looked up at her team, her arms wrapped around herself, hugging her body steady.

"Aulora…" Arcee said, a mix of regret in her voice as she watched her slowly approach. She shouldn't have seen that.

"What do you mean?" Ratchet asked.

"His m-mind is still w-weak, b-b-but I can f-feel s-something at-tacking his b-body," she replied, her voice shaking with emotion, as she slowly approached the group, watching her guardian.

"Whoa," Miko replied with interest.

"You can feel the things he feels!?" Jack asked, astounded.

"Did Prima even know he could do that?" Bulkhead asked.

Ratchet held his hand out, silencing the questioning group, as he turned back to Aulora.

"What do you think is wrong with Optimus, Aulora?" he asked, patiently.

"I don't kn-now," she replied, drying her eyes with a still trembling fist. "I don't think our connection's s-s-strong enough right now, but I can sense his thoughts," she stammered, looking up to the medic. He calmly nodded his head for her to continue.

"He thinks he's suffering from some type of illness that's attacking his immune system. His internal systems are telling him that his population of antibodies is dropping rapidly. They're also telling him that an infection has started where he was stabbed, and that he doesn't have a strong enough immune system to fight it off," she slowly explained, occasionally closing her eyes to hone in deeper on Optimus's very weak and occupied mind.

"How could I have missed that!?" Ratchet exclaimed, more to himself than anyone else, as he turned back to Optimus's vital monitors and began sifting through the data.

Arcee turned back to the small human.

"So he almost just died because his body couldn't fight off a simple, little virus?" Arcee asked.

Aulora nodded.

_"So then…that's not a real big deal…right?"_ Bumblebee asked out loud. Raf translated for the others.

"Bee's right. If it's just a virus, we can just cure Optimus," Jack noted.

"No. If something is directly attacking Optimus's immune system, we're dealing with a very potent and advanced virus, something I've never seen before in my life, nor have the means of treating," Ratchet explained.

"Wait, what!?" Jack and Arcee exclaimed together.

"Dude, you're the Doc! You gotta have some type of drug for the Big O!" Miko exclaimed.

"You've cured Optimus of the Cybonic Plague. This should be a synch," Bulkhead reasoned.

"Yes, because I recognized his symptoms and vital reports, thus knowing how to cure him! I have never seen a contagion attack so rapidly, aggressively or precisely in all my vorns. My equipment is still not able to read or even pin point where the virus is currently in his body! This disease is like a ghost!" Ratchet explained, his voice laced with concern and despair.

"So then…what do we do?" Jack asked, turning back to his unconscious leader.

Aulora looked expectantly up at the field medic, waiting for a response. But she could already see it in his perplexed face and twitching glare.

He was as clueless as she was.

She watched as his chest slowly rose, hitched, and then fell. Rose, hitch, fall.

Rose, hitch, fall.

She never felt so empty minded. It was as if her body was just sitting there, limp and dead, not possessed by any soul or brain. She felt so numb, nothing could touch her. Though she had been touched. Numerous times, in fact.

Miko had given a few gentle pads on her back and had said something along the lines of Optimus being indestructible.

Jack had placed his hand on her shoulder and told her to call him if his condition changed.

Raf had given her his small pack of tissues from his backpack and had mentioned something about a bright side.

Arcee had placed her hand over her back and had mentioned something about Optimus's strength.

Bumblebee gave her a small, encouraging bump on the arm, reminding Aulora he was there if she needed him.

Bulkhead said Optimus wouldn't leave them.

They were all so convinced. They were so hell-bent on the idea that Optimus was almost…immortal. With everything their leader, her leader, had encountered, he could cheat death again. A prominent, strong, wise and powerful leader, such as himself, couldn't leave them. It almost seemed impossible. Optimus just wasn't meant to die.

Oh how foolish they were. How naive they were to believe life could ever be so stable, so predictable. Life did what it pleased. It had a mind and a will of its own. And it was never…ever told no. Life was spoiled. It did whatever pleased it. And as if to prove to those so unwise to have any unbelief in its power, it took lives. If it saw anyone get too comfortable, too used to easy tradition, it screwed their world right up. If there was anyone who knew that, it was her.

And it seemed that Life had her on speed-dial, with hidden cameras watching her every move.

Because every time she started to appreciate something, started to fall in love with the beauties of her existence, Life reminded her it was a two-faced player. She was reminded, almost immediately, that happy endings only existed in fairytales.

How could she let this happen to her again? How could she have been so foolish!? She had lost everything before. She had lost her whole world, her whole soul. And coming back to Team Prime, finding out Cliffjumper had passed away too…it solidified her theory that Life just had it out for her the day she was born. And there she went, falling in love with a friendship she thought she would never find again. She relished in the feeling of finally belonging once again. She adored the thought of coming home from a hard, long day, to someone who was looking forward to seeing her. And Life, once again, couldn't let that happen. Aulora McAllister was doomed to be alone. Every heart she touched turned to dust.

She hugged her knees up to her chest, her huddled form on the small, metal chair shaking as she sobbed into her kneecaps.

**_"There is no need to lose hope, Aulora. Life is not as predictable as it appears to be."_**

The small human quickly whipped her head up and peered around the empty base, save for the clinking sounds coming from Ratchet's supply room at the end of the eastern hall.

Arcee?

**_"No, I am not Arcee. There is no need to look for me, Aulora. You will not find me."_**

It was a feminine voice, that she knew for sure. It was a Cybertronian too. The silky way her words slid out from her mouth, she could almost hear the silvery echo of her words playfully slide across her aluminum trachea. But her voice was significantly higher than Arcee's. Her words were annunciated more, as well, where Arcee's seem to lazily string along together.

**_"You have an impeccable sense of observation, Aulora. Not many are able to decipher the very minute and subtle differences between the Northern and Southern Iaconian accent."_**

_Wait…what?_

Now she knew she was going crazy. Somehow she was hearing somebody responding to her thoughts.

**_"You are not going crazy, Aulora. Far from it, actually. It appears the last grade on a mathematical exam proves the opposing theory."_**

Aulora's mouth nearly dropped to the ground in complete astonishment…and understanding.

This person was speaking to her within her mind.

**_"That would be correct. I did not mean to frighten you, Aulora, I only wished to relay a message, seeing as Optimus is running very short on time," _**she responded.

**_"How is this possible?"_** Aulora asked.

**_"Though I truly wish to answer your question, Aulora, it would take me orns to thoroughly explain. Optimus needs immediate help," _**she urged.

**_"Wait, you know how to help Optimus?"_** Aulora asked. How was she so ready to believe her? However, turning back to Optimus's horrifically weakened state clarified the reason; _she was desperate_. Thought the rest of the team seemed confident the tides of fate were on Optimus's side, Aulora lacked their confidence, simply from experience. Truthfully, she was desperate enough to believe anybody at this point, even if it was some crazy, unknown Cybertronian in her head.

**_"No, Aulora, I can assure you I am not insane. But we don't have time to discuss this. Optimus is suffering from an infection known as NBE1."_**

**_"NBE1? Is that some kind of serial number?"_** Aulora asked.

**_"To some extent, yes. A Decepticon scientist, designation Shockwave, engineered a large portion of biological warfare diseases and illnesses Megatron kept secret until the situation became dire enough to call for global extermination,"_** she explained.

**_"Global extermination? You mean…"_**

**_"Megatron was willing to sacrifice the life of every living being on Cybertron if it was to ensure his well being," _**the stranger continued.

**_"That's horrible," _**Aulora commented.

**_"Indeed. Megatron employed Shockwave with the task of creating a single cell organism that could quickly multiply, infest and kill every spark across the planet a mere few cycles. Shockwave spent a long time in his laboratory, developing numerous contagions that never fit Megatron's needs. However, he did eventually create the ultimate Cybertronian killer, and that was sample NBE1."_**

**_"But if Megatron never infected Cybertron with it, how is it that Optimus has the virus?"_** Aulora questioned.

**_"Shockwave had hundreds of underground laboratories stationed across Cybertron, and the Autobots were fortunate enough to gain coordinates to a large handful of them, one them stationed just below Kaon's gladiatorial ring, where the NBE1 sample was held. The Autobots seized the sample and locked it away in the Vaults of Iacon. Later in the war, the Vaults were attacked by a fleet of Decepticon bombers, including Megatron himself, and in a desperate rush to save relics and data, Alpha Trion began activating the launch pods, sending many of Cybertron's most precious artifacts and data files off world. Starscream, however, was able to get his hands on one of the pods just as it was leaving Cybertron's atmosphere and spilled the stolen vile of NBE1 into its chambers,"_** she explained further.

**_"Let me guess. That pod had held two Zeta Relics," _**Aulora said.

**_"Yes, it did. Relics 067 and 089 were exposed to the toxic virus, though the pods extended period of time in space greatly decreased NBE1's potency and deadliness."_**

**_"If it was not that strong anymore, how did Optimus become infect with it?" _**Aulora asked.

**_"Well, if your memories serve correctly, Optimus sustained an open wound during the explosion of Relic 067. The NBE1 virus has reduced to the strength of a simple helm-ache, but Optimus's open allowed the virus complete access to his main Energon lines, and thus direst access to his spark, where the virus is no doubt wreaking havoc,"_** she described.

**_"So that explains why none of the other 'Bots were infected,"_** Aulora hypothesized.

**_"That is correct."_**

**_"So how do you stop the NBE1 virus?"_** Aulora asked.

**_"Aulora, it is a disease. Do you not remember what your serum is capable of?" _**she informed.

Aulora turned down to her chest to look at the small, Autobot symbol that was peeping through her shirt. How could she have forgotten about it? But would it do the trick?

**_"Are you sure it will help Optimus? I thought it only removed poison from Dark Energon samples?"_** Aulora asked.

**_"Oh the serum can do much more than that, Aulora. But that is another story for another time," _**the voice supplied.

**_"I deeply apologize, Aulora, but I must…be going. My…..physical…..form…..is…."_** the voice replied, fading out into a static wave of scratches.

**_"Uh, hello? Are you still there?"_**

No answer.

Great.

Was she supposed to listen to _her_?

She mentally smacked myself. Of course she shouldn't listen to her! She just had a telepathic conversation with a person she's supposedly not able to see. She's officially lost it. Plain and simple.

Of course, she thought the same thing when she first discovered Optimus could weasel into her head, but this…this was different. Optimus was the only one with a Matrix that could use the Telonian connection. And he could only "converse" with one other person. Which was her. Which means, logically, it could be one of 3 reasons. A, There is another Matrix floating around out there…somewhere, and this particular Cybertronian stumbled upon it. B, This has nothing to do with the Telonian connection and she's just some modern-day Charles Xavier who can talk with aliens. Or C, she has officially lost. And being she of so little faith, she agreed with the last option. Not that she like being labeled as crazy…but in this circumstance, it made the most sense.

She had gotten little to no sleep over the past week, her mind was still in a frenzy from the encounter with Proditor and now…now Optimus was dying. If anything, these were all valid excuses to let her go insane.

But what if, on top of going insane, she could still hear another voice. There were details about her conversation that argued against the idea that she was simply talking to herself. NBE1, Shockwave's secret laboratory under Kaon…these were things her mind couldn't have spontaneously created, even on a good day.

She turned back to watch Optimus as he continued to wallow in his dream of unconsciousness. She never got to tell him everything. She knew they were both dancing around each other. They both, now, held secrets to each other's minds that they didn't want to other knowing they had them. They kept avoiding the subject, trying to keep a false sense of comfort and stability around them. And yet here he was, a miracle he was still breathing.

She needed to find Ratchet.

She had a theory to test.

She took one last look down into her backpack a grumbled out loud to herself.

_She forgot her English textbook. _

She tiredly rubbed at her stinging eyes and turned back down the hallway, squeezing her way past the oncoming waves of kids. Her head felt fuzzy and light-headed, as her dizzy thoughts continued to float like feathers around in her head. The corners of her eyes sparkled with bright, white edges.

For lack of a better word, she felt like shit.

With absolute and close precision, Ratchet was able to use a small sample from Aulora's serum bottle and inject into one of Optimus's largest spark arteries.

And that's when everything went wrong.

At first, nothing happened. His vitals didn't change or fluctuate. His spark rate didn't increase or decrease. His core temperature was still rising.

And then everything crashed.

His vitals plummeted. His spark rate dropped lower than it was already. His core temperature rose steeply to dangerous heights. His antibody count almost completely wiped out of existence.

Optimus had fallen into a coma.

And it was all her fault.

_How could I have been so stupid as to listen to a little voice in my head? Was I certifiably insane!? I had put Optimus's life on the line all on the hunch that the femme in my head was real, and my lack of sleep and dizzy head were valid examples of proof, _she thought to herself.

Ratchet had said that the comatose state could easily be a side effect that would remedy itself in time, but she knew better. She knew the medic was simply trying to sugar coat the truth. Optimus may never wake up from that coma, and it was all because she was stupid enough to listen to a genie that was going to help her out. What would the other Autobots think of her? She had put their leader in a coma, and she didn't exactly have the kind of seniority in the group to pull that kind of stunt. She wouldn't blame them if they never wanted her coming back to base.

She had been so immersed in her thoughts that almost didn't realize that her instincts had already carried her numb body all the way into her English classroom, right up to her idle textbook on her backseat desk, right past her teacher, sitting quietly in her desk, who was now watching her very curiously.

"Is everything alright, Aulora?" Mrs. Thomas asked, watching as her student completely jumped in her skin as she turned her surprised face around to face her.

Mrs. Thomas gave a small chuckle. "I'm sorry, Aulora. I didn't mean to startle you," she said, grinning from ear to ear.

She watched as Aulora quickly shook her still agape mouth back into place and gave her teacher a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, Mrs. Thomas. I didn't see you there. I must've been deep in thought," she said, slowly grabbing her textbook and already making her way towards the door.

"It's alright. Have you started working on your essay yet?" Mrs. Thomas asked, putting down her pen to turn her full attention to her student.

Aulora nodded her head. "Well, started being the operative word," she replied meekly, making Mrs. Thomas smile again. She was surprised to find Aulora's demeanor just as meek, humble and shy as it was with a class of 24 kids around her. She was, indeed, a very shy girl, watching as her student was already inching her way out the door, away from anymore interaction.

"Aulora, would you like to join me for lunch?" she asked gently, gesturing to the empty seat beside her desk. She grinned again as her student threw her a polite but confused expression.

"Jasper High likes to have follow-ups with their new students and they want me to conduct it. It would actually save me from making an after-school appointment with you," she replied, surprised at how beautifully the lie rolled right off her tongue.

Aulora stole a hesitated glance down at the empty chair beside Mrs. Thomas. It was easily inscribed across her face that she did not want to, but she knew she was trapped, and accepted her defeat as she hesitantly eased herself into the large, black swivel chair.

"There's no need to be worried, Aulora. I don't bite," she replied sweetly.

Aulora gave a small, forced smile back to her teacher, as she nervously wound her fingers around the straps on her backpack.

"So, tell me, how do you like Jasper High so far?" Mrs. Thomas asked, turning back to her stack of ungraded papers, hoping to take some pressure of the clearly anxious teen.

"Uh, ok I guess," she replied.

"I know how you feel. I remember moving from New York out to this little desert town back when I was in high school, and let me tell you, it was a challenge."

"You went to Jasper High?" Aulora asked, curiously.

"Yep. Class of '05. I think there was a whole 43 kids in my graduating class," she replied with a chuckle.

"It's good to know Jasper never changed," Aulora replied, with a small chuckle, Mrs. Thomas joining her.

"Laughs aside, though, I know how tough a transition it can be, Aulora. So if you ever need to talk, my door is always open," she said, peering down at the girl with wide, gentle, strong eyes.

Aulora nodded. Her suddenly caught sight of a small group of picture frames huddled in the far corner of Mrs. Thomas's desk, trying to conserve as much room as possible for her leaning towers of papers.

Mrs. Thomas followed her gaze and smiled, picking up a photograph the young teenager seemed to be particularly interested in.

"Is that your mom?" Aulora asked.

"Yeah. She was the one who encouraged me to become an English teacher. I didn't think I had what it took, but she kept pushing me, and I wouldn't be where I am now if it wasn't for her," she said, fondly.

"She seems nice," Aulora observed, studying the picture further.

"Oh, but don't let her looks fool you. She's a fiery woman when she needs to be and you don't want to mess with fire," Mrs. Thomas chuckled.

"Oh, don't be too hard on her. She doesn't seem that harsh," Aulora replied, smiling.

"Oh yeah?! Wait to you hear the story of our family's reunion in California. You would not believe the stunt she pulled…"

She unlocked the door and locked it behind her. It felt so weird being home at that hour. For the past few weeks, she had practically lived at base. She was there after school, well into the late hours of the night. Sometimes she would just sleep over there and ride with one of the bots to school. It almost felt like she was never home. It almost didn't feel like her house, as she scanned over her still bare house.

To her, it really hadn't mattered that she didn't buy any furniture yet because she was never home to realize its vacancy. But now, the bare walls and floors couldn't be any louder.

She let her bag slide to the floor, hearing the smack of her textbooks against the wood floor echo across the barren house.

Why was she even here? She had half a mind to scoop her backpack back onto her back, call up Ratchet for a ground bridge and head back to base. But she knew she couldn't do that. Not after what she had done.

She had put Optimus Prime in a coma.

The guilt bubbled in her unsettled mind, weighing down on her still dizzy head. It was all her fault. She had lied to Ratchet. She had told him that Optimus kept trying to make contact with her to instruct her to use the serum. She had lied to Ratchet and told him that Optimus had been reading up on the serum she protected and that it would help cure him. And now, Optimus might never walk away from the that damn medical berth. And all because she didn't want anyone to know of a second voice she was hearing in her head. She had been so desperate to believe the voice, that she put not only her leader, but her novice guardian's life on the line.

How could she have screwed up so badly!? How could she have let her stupidity gone so far!?

**_"I'm sorry to interrupt, Aulora, but I was curious why you didn't inform Ratchet about me?"_**

**_"You! How dare you come into my head again! You have no right!"_** Aulora exclaimed. She placed a hand on her forehead. _Oh my gosh_, she thought to herself. _I'm talking to myself again. I really am going crazy._

**_"Aulora, you are not talking to yourself and you are not going crazy."_**

**_"That's exactly what my mind wants me to think!"_**

**_"Aulora, please recompose yourself. I am not a part of your head."_**

**_"Oh yeah! And how do you plan on proving it!? Because the fact that Optimus is in a coma right now is not helping your case at all!"_**

**_"I know, Aulora, and for that I am truly sorry. Your serum is supposed to work, and I have to agree with your medic with his theory that his is simply a grave side affect."_**

**_"Just stop talking! Ugh, I really don't want to hear your voice right now! You're the reason Optimus may never wake up again!"_**

**_"Aulora, please, just listen to me for a second. I need to explain to you the gravity of the situation."_**

**_"You need to explain to _**me **_the gravity of the situation!? Optimus is in a coma and its all thanks to your wonderful advice!"_**

**_"Aulora, Optimus is running low on time. You must return to him."_**

**_"Oh yeah!? So you can just talk me into another one of your scandals? No way, not going to happen. Heck, for all I know you could be a Decepticon who's trying to bump off my leader!"_**

**_"Aulora, I can assure you I am not a Decepticon."_**

**_"Oh yeah?! Then who are you!? I've been listening to your fantastic advice this whole time, and I don't even know your name or anything about you, for that matter! Why should I trust you?"_**

**_"Aulora, please."_**

**_"No! You know what, I'm not making one move until I know your name, your species, your faction, your occupation, why you 'fizzed' out on me during our last conversation, what exactly you meant by your "physical form" and the reason I can hear you in my head!"_**

**_"Aulora, the longer we stall, the less time Optimus has."_**

**_"You're just wasting time here."_**

**_"But-"_**

**_"Tick, tock, tick, tock."_**

**_"Ugh, very well. My designation is Stella. I am a Cybertronian and I hold allegiance to no faction, for I am a Neutral. I was a bio-scientist before the Great War began, and during this period I became an assistant at a Neutral Medical facility. The reason why our connection faded last time is directly tied to my 'physical state.' Towards the end of the war, I was caught in a dangerous explosion outside the city of Tyger Pax. I was in terrible shape. I was placed on your version of life support, in a medically induced stasis, and I have not awakened since. And the reason you can hear me in your head is for a reason that would take too long for me to explain."_**

**_"Not good enough."_**

**_"Aulora, I promise upon my very spark that after this ordeal is done and Optimus is well, the two of us can sit down and you can ask me all the questions in the universe. However, at this point in time, I simply ask that you trust me."_**

Aulora paused for a second, noticing that while she had been in the trance of her mental conversation with 'Stella' she had walked all the way into her kitchen and was now standing mere inches from its largest window.

Should she trust her?

What if she wasn't who she said she was? Sure she would answer all of her questions later. But if she was a Decepticon, she would've accomplished her mission of killing off Optimus Prime and it wouldn't matter if Aulora had questions.

And why was it that she chose _now_, of all times, to contact her? Truthfully, in Aulora's opinion, it seemed all too convenient for her to show up at the same time Optimus fell ill.

And how did she know all of that information about the "NBE1" and all of the other intel about the Decepticons? If Aulora had to make a guess, that kind of information was not something the 'Con's posted at the local post office on a bulletin board.

All odds seemed against the female voice dancing around in her head. But what if she was telling the truth? What if this was Aulora's only opportunity to save her leader?

What was she going to do?

**so you guys know a lot about my stories and are probably forming some opinions about me as well (all good things I hope :) ) but I don't know a lot about you. Now, I'm not looking to obtain any bank account numbers or information like that. I just want to get to know my audience better, since you guys are my inspiration to keep writing. so to stimulate the brain cells, I have a question for all you lovely readers out there. **

**Much like how Aulora is having suspicions over the ever-mysterious 'Stella' have any of you ever met someone for the first time and have some very negative assumptions towards them? And if so, did they ever prove those assumptions wrong. **


	2. New Patient

**hey hey hey!**

**how's everyone doing? so here's the next story. i know, i know, it's a little late and i'm sorry. this was one of my harder chapters simply because there were so many ideas and details i wanted to address and get ironed out before the action really started picking up. and believe...it does. **

**so apparently i no longer have that little page divider *wipes away a tear* so for now, until i find a more dignified way of signaling scene shifts, you're going to have to put up with my immature sentence separators (they're bold and underlined) of course, i then have to find another way to write aulora/optimus/stella's mind communication. decisions decisions.**

**oh well. hope you guys enjoy the story. cheers. **

**TILTED AXIS: NEW PATIENT**

The fatigued medic glanced over once again to look at the small teen huddled stiff with sleep against Optimus's hip, her chin resting on her knees, as her bloodshot eyes stared off into nothing.

She had contacted him hours ago, requesting a ground bridge back to base, where she had almost broken into a sprint up to Optimus's side. She hadn't moved or shifted since. As an acute observer, the medic was able to glean several details and vital signs from the young Aulora most of the other Autobots wouldn't have been able to detect. And one element of Aulora's rather weak and tired body that was most prominent to the seasoned CMO was the preoccupation her mind and attention seemed to have on something entirely foreign to the world around her.

Sure, he had detected many other factors of her health that were more detrimental to her well being than her mind simply being in another universe. Her core temperature, for starters, though still relatively low, was slowly starting to climb. Her body seemed to be suffering the utmost deprivation of sleep he had ever encountered, and for a long-standing field medic, that was saying a lot. If there was any common ailment any troops under his care had suffered, it was lack of stasis, for many had withstood cycles upon cycles of battle, un-rested. Some became so fatigued, they simply passed out in the middle of the battlefield, their CPU's simply fried to rust. However, it appeared that the young McAllister was running on simply the air around her. She lacked any form of energy humans possessed and was simply functioning due to natural instinct, which had Ratchet assuming that the youngling had accomplished the feat of uninterrupted days before, which would build her strength to hold out longer than most.

But aside from all of those factors, fear and anxiety somehow falling into that mix, it was the way her eyes moved that had the front-line doctor truly worrying over her health. Though they were limply trained on her shoes at the present moment, there had been times throughout the past few hours where he had almost yelped in surprise when her eyes, with horrific speed, lurched in other direction, seemingly focused on something that clearly was not there. Then they would demonically leap to another unseen object, sometimes teeter back and forth, as if she was hearing something.

Though the medic was aware of many mechs and femmes who had also appeared "dazed" and "psychotic" without rest, there was something deep within Ratchet's programming that stalled his immediate diagnosis. Though her symptoms fit the diagnosis; delusional, distorted perceptions, possible hallucinations; something else was off about the young organic. Something else was at play.

Every circuit, every nerve in the medic's body screamed at him to ask his patient what was wrong. His processor would not be satisfied until he was able to remedy the problem. It was in his programming to "play the role" so to speak, of the doctor. But he couldn't bring himself to ask, which he finally realized all boiled down to the simple feeling of insecurity.

If it was Optimus or Bumblebee, the foolish youngling always hiding his symptoms in order to measure up to his leader, or any of the other 'Bots, there would not have been a second's hesitation. Ratchet would've even strapped them to the medical bay and wouldn't promise their release until they were up front with him. And in truth, he would've acted the same way with either Jack, Miko or Rafael. Though he certainly had not known them as long as he had the rest of Team Prime, the short amount of time they _had_ spent together proved to the medic they were much more valuable, to him, than mere allies, and if any of them were ailing, he would have them undergo similar interrogation.

But Aulora was, altogether, an entirely different case.

His time spent with Aulora was erratic, as best. Though he had been introduced to the very young Aulora years ago upon the return of Cliffjumper and the arrival of Lorelei, he had only truly spoken with the little organic twice, before the McAllister's disappeared from their lives, the medic now knowing they had perished in a vehicle calamity. He only learned qualities of Aulora from Cliffjumper's daily log-in reports he had sent to Optimus during his recovery with Lorelei and Aulora. And that was it. Though Aulora had already logged a few weeks in, already, with Team Prime, her scholastic studies and his research on the new arrivals of the Iacon Relics hadn't left the medic and the young human many chances to interact. If they had, it was simply to run a scan on her still horrifically scarred arms, which was usually interrupted or cut short by their overwhelmed schedules.

It was no excuse, though. Aulora required attention, some medical and some emotional. But that was what he feared most; if there was an emotional instability. For the rest of Team Prime, Ratchet had never disliked coming to terms with the fact that as a doctor for the team, he would need to act as both a healer and a listener. But he had grown attached to, and comfortable with all of the team members, and would not hesitate to ask if something was amiss. Aulora was new. But that was not a good excuse. She needed help. And because her Telonian partner/partial guardian was in a coma at said moment, it was up to him to step forward and take the responsibility of watching over the clearly struggling teen.

However, his thoughts were interrupted at the sound of a series of car horns, as Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead drove into the base's entrance, their respective charges getting out/off of them as they transformed.

Raf was quickly sprinting up the steps to the second level with Jack and Miko close behind. "Ratchet, you gotta come check this out!" the small, 12 year old exclaimed.

Ratchet quickly rushed over to join the other Autobots who had already formed a semi circle in front of the small TV. Raf turned the small box on, showing a news report.

"….has been evacuated until the energy readings have been reduced and the area has been deemed safe for civilians. However, the solution to this problem still has not been found, as the radioactive levels continue to increase…."

"PRIME!"

All heads, save for Optimus and Aulora's, turned to the overhead screen as Agent Fowler's face appeared.

"Fowler," Arcee plainly addressed.

"Are you 'Bots seeing this!?" he exclaimed angrily.

"If you are referring to the latest news report from Russia, then yes we are _seeing this_," Ratchet informed.

"I've been able to pry the FBI, CIA and International Affair's grubby hands off of the area, but not for long. You guys need to get your butts in gear and come down before pictures of this thing leak onto the 8 o'clock news!" the liaison exclaimed.

"Wait, why do you need us?" Arcee asked.

"Because it's one of _your_ toys! One of those relics you guys have been huntin' for!" he yelled.

"That's impossible!" Ratchet scoffed. "If there was a new Iacon relic that has entered Earth's atmosphere, our scanners would've have detected the foreign energy signature," Ratchet explained, hurriedly checking through the scanners database, just to make sure he hadn't missed something.

"Actually, it is possible." Team Prime turned, startled, to the new voice, watching as Nova's image floated up from her map.

"How?" Raf asked, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

"There were a few relics that Alpha Trion feared would fall into the wrong hands, on any planet, and wreak global panic," Nova responded.

"So he turned off their beacons," Jack reasoned, Nova nodding to his response.

"Yeah, but the 'Cons have the news like we do. They'll put two and two together eventually," Bulkhead stated.

"It's not the 'Cons we should fear, Bulkhead. Iacon relics with disengaged beacons were not built to be activated by the touch of a Cybertronian, but an organics'," Nova explained.

"And on a planet teaming with them…" Ratchet started.

"It was only a matter of time before a human discovers it," Jack finished.

"Well I don't care if Alpha Beta turned off its tracker. You guys need to get your heads outta the clouds and handle this, before the whole planet learns about it and aliens," Agent Fowler commanded the Autobots, before turning off the comm link.

"Well someone forgot to eat their _Cheery_-o's this mornin'," Bumblebee chirped, winking to his charge, Arcee, Bulkhead and Raf letting a small smile stretch on their faces.

"Jokes aside, we must contain this situation before your human organizations wise up to what exactly is causing disturbances," Ratchet instructed. He turned to Nova. "Do you think you will be able to direct us to the exact location of the relic?" he asked her.

"Absolutely," she responded.

"Wait, so who's calling the shots when Optimus is out of commission?" Bulkhead asked.

"With seniority in rank and profession, the chain of command would fall to Ratchet," Arcee explained, peering up at the chief medical advisor.

"And leave a comatose patient to go frolicking into the battlefield, I don't think so," Ratchet sarcastically replied.

"You're the oldest here, Bulk. You should call the shots!" Miko exclaimed, already drooling with excitement at the prospect of her guardian being leader for the day.

"Yeah, but Arcee has a longer track record as a certified soldier than me," the Wrecker pointed out.

"But despite his age and lack of experience, Bumblebee's spent the most time under Optimus's command," Arcee replied.

"So then you'll all just have to work as a team then. Take Nova with you and see if she can help you find the relic," Ratchet replied with a wave of his hand, already opening the ground bridge.

**(Soon after Team Prime leaves to find the Iacon Relic)**

The three Autobots soldiers turned hesitantly to each other. An equal chain of command? The Wrecker, front-liner and scout all knew the complications of not having a designated leader. Any conflicting ideals or opinions were a dangerous thing to have in the heat of battle. There was no time to make a compromise or argue whose idea was the best. Though none of them wanted the relinquished title, they weren't all too convinced they wanted to go out without _someone_ bearing it.

"Hey."

Jack and Raf looked up from their rather quiet video game to look over at the pink-haired, Japanese teenager. She tilted her head and nodded off to something behind them. They both turned around to spot Aulora huddled on the ground, her back up against Optimus's medical bay, as she stared at the ground.

As the kids turned back to each other, their eyes met, they nodded their heads simultaneously, and a common thought was passed. They all got up and made their way down the stairs and over to Aulora's small, curled form. Aulora hadn't even noticed Miko climb into the chair in front of her, spin it around, and sit down around its back, or Raf seat himself beside her. It took the force of Jack to sit beside her and place a hand on her shoulder to finally bring the quiet girl out of her deep thought.

"Oh, hey guys," she meekly replied.

"How yah holdin' up?" Miko asked, her voice strangely quiet and somewhat considerate.

Aulora exhaled a large, pent-up sigh. "Peachy," she replied.

"Don't worry, Aulora. Optimus'll wake up soon," Raf comforted.

"Optimus isn't the only one I'm worried about," Aulora added, almost absent-mindedly.

"What'd you mean?" Jack asked gently.

"Proditor's still cooped up in that holding cell, and he won't be able to get out until Optimus wakes up and verifies is allegiance to the Autobots," Aulora quietly explained.

"Wait, Optimus has met the big cat before?" Miko asked, her energy and volume quickly returning to her voice.

Aulora peered up at her guardian's still form, before turning her gaze back to the floor.

"Optimus's mind is on this continually loop of dreams and memories in his coma, which I can see as well. Apparently, he's met Proditor before in battle. If it wasn't for Proditor jumping in and drawing Megatron's attention away from Optimus, who was badly injured, he probably wouldn't be here right now," Aulora explained, the gravity of her statement almost rendering the other kids speechless. Almost.

"So, he's not a part of that DJD group his pod came from?" Miko asked.

"No. I don't know how he ended up in there, but he officially severed his ties with the Decepticons immediately after he finally gained freedom from Soundwave's control," she explained further.

"So we need to get ole' Mr. Kitty Cat out of that cell," Miko stated firmly.

"But Aulora's right. Without Optimus to verify Proditor's leave of the Decepticons, the others are still going to question his loyalty and keep him in there, most likely away from us," Raf explained.

"So then why can't she just tell the 'Bots what she told us about Optimus's memory?" Miko exclaimed, hands in the air.

"Because they'll just think I want to get him out of there. They're gonna want to hear it from Optimus himself," Aulora suggested.

"So then Proditor's screwed, at least until Optimus is coherent," Jack reasoned.

"Which could take days…even weeks," Aulora said.

"Maybe I can check the 'Bots' database. They may have old, Cybertronian records that might've caught Proditor in action with the Autobots," Raf suggested, his face lighting up with excitement.

"Well come on, Gramps. There's no time like the present! Let's get rockin'" Miko exclaimed, quickly hopping off of her seat and jogging right behind the young Esquivel up to the main computers.

However, Jack stayed seated where he was, still looking at Aulora as she once again lost herself in her thoughts.

"Aulora," he called to her, gently, almost grimacing as she was roughly pulled from whatever peaceful world she had found outside of reality.

"Raf, Miko and I'll try and get Proditor out of there, but you have to promise me something," he continued softly. "I want you to talk to Ratchet."

"About what?"

"Anything. Anything you want," he said.

Aulora's eyebrow twitched in confusion. "Why Ratchet?" she asked.

"Because, despite his constant grumbling and complaining, he's a good listener, like really good. And the thing is, he gives really good advice. I don't know why. Maybe he was a psychologist back on Cybertron too, who knows. All I'm saying, whatever's weighing this down," he said, pointing to his head, "is something he can fix. I guess it's just a doctor thing."

She numbly laid her head on his strong shoulder, too tired to keep it suspended in the air another moment. He hugged her closer to him.

"I'm just worried about you, Aulora. You haven't slept, ate or said anything for the past few days," he whispered to her.

He felt her chest rise against his as she let out a large, pent-up sigh. He had been worrying about her ever since Optimus fell ill. Sure, he was worried about the Autobot leader. There was no doubt about that. Though he rarely engaged in a direct conversation with the large Cybertronian, and rarely saw him period, he had almost grown to think of him as something deeper than a leader. He couldn't figure out just what. But those few times he did converse with the wise Autobot made him feel…kind of special inside. Like he felt privileged when the solitary leader took time out of his day to maybe ask how Jack's was fairing, or maybe ask for his opinion on something, though that was a rather rare occurrence.

But to see Aulora like this, quieter and more submissive than normal, was almost heart-breaking to the hazel eyed 16 year old. As someone normally so happy and smiling, it was depressing to see a simple, straight line across her lips and her pure, crystal eyes almost a dark overcast to its usual shimmering blue.

At first, he was confused as to why Aulora would feel so…depressed over this. Sure, Optimus's condition was getting to all of them, but Aulora hadn't grown fairly close to Optimus, at least that's what Ratchet had explained to him. Even with the ability to read each others' minds, they were constantly trying to avoid the other, and rarely spoke a word to each other. Granter, neither were much talkers to begin with. But the two took silence to a whole other level between each other. Yet, there she was, huddled miserably by his side throughout the whole experience, numerous times in tears. The only explanation he could offer was that was a lot more to their mind reading abilities than they let on, which also scared him a little.

He turned to look down at her.

"So, give anymore thought to the whole "Cliffjumper was a faker" theory?" he asked, suddenly realizing just how much had happened in Aulora's life since the day she got here.

Not only was it monumental for her to reunite with the long-lost team of friends, but it the span of the few weeks she had moved to Jasper, she had a mental breakdown with Optimus and later discovered she had gained this ancient mind language with the Last Prime, she went on a high-risk mission and saved the Prime's life, she was attacked by a lethal, Decepticon weapon, discovered Alpha Trion one of the original Primes, had visions of her and created a new group of relics just for her to use, and on top of all of that, she was working on a term paper for English class. Talk about hectic.

He watched as she slowly reached for her necklace and gently danced it across her fingertips.

"Do you know what he told me when he gave this to me?" she asked, her voice almost a hoarse whisper.

"What?"

"He told me that nothing is as it appears, and that just like me, there was more to the serum than meets the eye. Of course, this was in his laid-back, careless language of speaking, but essentially just as I had lots to find out about the serum, there were still lots of things I had to learn about myself as well," she explained.

"Do you think he knew about the language and the Zeta Relics?"

"Probably not. Plato once said that wise men speak when they have something to say, fools when they have to say something," she replied quietly.

Jack couldn't help but smirk and let out a small chuckle.

"Don't get me wrong, Cliff had several, scattered moments of wisdom, moments I'll never forget, but his constant ramblings usually weren't filled with a lot of substance," she said, a small smile on her face.

"What_ did_ Cliffjumper talk about?" Jack asked, always curious about the shoes he filled as Arcee's partner, but too scared to ask the front-liner himself.

"Mainly stories, which of course was alright with me. From Cybertron's Golden Age, to the years of the Great War and everything in between, Cliffjumper just continued to spew out every piece of knowledge he had gained over the years, though he definitely gave his partial side to many of the stories," she replied, still smiling as she reveled in the memories.

"Arcee doesn't talk about him a lot," Jack commented.

Aulora nodded. "If Cliffjumper wasn't talking about himself or the "fraggin' Cons" he was continually boasting about Arcee. I knew everything about her, from stats to chains of command," she explained.

Jack almost felt a little jealous. Why didn't he know about that kind of stuff. _Come to think of it, _he thought, _there's not much about Arcee I do know. _And yet years ago, a 9 year old Aulora hadn't even met his partner and already knew a lot more than he did after spending almost a year with her.

"You should ask her. You two are alike, you won't divulge much about yourself," Aulora responded, interrupting his thoughts.

His eyebrows twitched in bafflement. "How did you—"

"I'm not clueless, Jack. I'd be kind of weary too if I didn't know everything there is to know about my guardian," she responded with a small smile.

Aulora nodded, turning to look back up at Optimus.

"You know he asked if he could be _my_ guardian?" she asked, still watching the weakened leader.

Jack's eyes widened. "What!? Aulora, that's great," he said, watching the young girl below him for a reaction, his arms instinctively wrapped around her shoulders to comfort, a gesture he had often made with his mom when she came home from work sometimes, so drained and exhausted.

"Isn't it?" he asked, watching as her face held an unknown emotion.

He felt her shoulders shrug underneath his arm.

"Why would he want to be my guardian?" she asked, looking up into Jack's patient eyes.

Jack looked at her peculiarly.

"Why _wouldn't_ he want to be your guardian?" he asked. Nothing against Arcee, but he would've thought it'd be pretty cool to have the mighty, stoic Autobot leader as his protector. There was something else tugging at Aulora's mind.

"I don't know. I guess…he's a Prime and everything…I just figured he'd need somebody more…special I guess," she whispered.

"Aulora, look at me. Don't sell yourself short, alright. You are an incredible person, and Optimus is lucky to have you," he said.

Aulora couldn't help but become lost in a distant memory, the hazy lights of the Foley's family room and the soothing, warm glow of the fire place dancing across her skin as if it was only yesterday.

_Dozens upon dozens of kids were scattered across the large house, the fresh smell of pine, roasting chestnuts and eggnog creating a thick fog of warm, spirited joy. As parents conversed around the dining room table, no doubt complementing Mr. and Mrs. Foley on their lovely vacation property, nestled gently in the folds of Oregon's countryside, the young children continued to socialize in the immense, high-ceiling family room. As some of Austin Foley's friends had joined him in pestering a few of the girls with remote control helicopters, others had began haphazardly pounding their small, untrained fingers across the Foley's large, grand piano, tucked to the side of the marble-floored room. Some children had already fallen under the spell of Rudolph as he danced across the large, television screen and still there were others who were content on simply sitting along the sofa seats, simply watching the large lights on the ten foot Christmas tree dance across the dimly lit room as they conversed amongst each other. _

_A group of those girls had drifted their glares to the small girl who had huddled herself close to the heavily decorated pine, who had her complete and utter attention averted to the book in front of her, completely unaware of the snickering and gossiping loops the girls had begun, uncomfortable and clearly jealous of her natural beauty and her self-confidence. It didn't help that many boys had purposely flown their helicopters or throw their balls in her direction, hoping to gain her attention somehow. _

_She habitually wrung her small finger through her curls, which were gently pulled up by a clip to the top of her head, letting them dangle like the tinsel that twirled down from the branches beside her. She wore a pink, soft turtle-neck sweater, complemented with a grey, flared skirt and a pair of knee high boots. Her pale blue irises flew across the page, as the world continued to spin around her. _

_A tall, slender woman with wavy, dark chestnut hair watched protectively and skeptically over the small girl next to the Christmas tree, sighing out loud to herself._

_"I don't know what to do with her, June. She just can't seem to get her head out of those books," she said, leaning against the kitchen island, a glass of red wine dancing nimbly amongst her fingertips. _

_The woman next to her smiled, as she too watched the small girl, her hazel eyes scrunching with amusement as she flipped her small, jet black shoulder ponytail back over her shoulder. _

_"Oh don't worry about her, Rachel. She'll come into her own someday, don't worry," she comforted. _

_Rachel slightly jumped, but smiled as she followed the stranger's arm around her waist to find kind, green eyes smiling down at her, amongst a few, thick pieces of scattered brown hair. _

_"Don't worry about her, Rache. She's perfectly fine the way she is," he comforted. _

_"See, listen to Dan. If I only I was that lucky to have Jack so into books like that," June laughed, the couple soon joining her chuckles. _

_"I know it's just…she's not going to make friends if she keeps reading books in corners. Do you know what her teacher told me the other day? That she's antisocial. I don't want her to be antisocial," she said, turning her concerned gaze back to her daughter. _

_"Oh, don't listen to them. Jack's teacher told Art and I the other day that Jack needed to be more creative in class, that we should sign him up for art classes," June said, a large smirk on her face. _

_"Where is Arthur anyway? I haven't seen him all night?" Rachel asked. _

_There was a noticeably fall in June's brightened face but she quickly shook it off. "He's working overtime at the office," she replied. _

_June suddenly turned down to a hand grabbing at her cardigan. _

_"Mom, can we go home now? I'm bored."_

_"Jack, we just got here," she said, habitually combing her hand through his messy hair. _

_"You know what, Jack? Do you see that girl over there by the tree?" Mrs. Darby said, pointing over to the family room. Jack nodded. _

_"She's Mr. and Mrs. McAllister's daughter. Why don't you go say hi?" she asked. _

_Jack finally turned his head to see the girl beneath the Christmas tree. And as Mrs. Darby waited patiently for her son's eminent complaints and agitation, she watched, astounded, as her son walked toward the girl without the slightest hint of objection. Jack had wanted nothing to do with girls at that age, convinced they were always out to get him somehow, especially after Brittany had told the teacher it was Jack who had lost the class's only kickball. And Mrs. Darby couldn't help but let her mouth fall to the floor as her young, 10 year old almost excitedly walk over to the secluded young McAllister by the tree. Wait 'till she told Art. _

_The small girl continued to keep her eyes glued to the page, until she felt a strong and able prescience beside her. _

_"Hi there," he said. _

_His voice was strong, deep and unwavering, much like his hands that soon clasped together in his lap. She finally turned to look at his face. He had a shaggy mop of jet black hair that seemed to have a mind of its own, its bangs almost touching his eyes. She had never been into boys with hair like his, but on him…it didn't seem to matter. It seemed to fit him. _

_She gave a small smile, keeping her lips closed, showing the older boy before her that she had heard him, and then went back to her book. _

_"Scrooge is in that one, right?" he asked, pointing to the cover of her book. _

_The young girl couldn't help but feel utterly surprised. All she had ever heard from other kids her age was why was she was reading a book. They would keep walking past her, never asking her to join anything, and act like reading alone was weird. No one had ever step forward, acknowledged her and then asked about her book. She looked up at the boy with a new set of eyes, not only deeply shocked by his knowledge of a Charles Dickens, most kids her age simply intrigued by the Harry Potter series, none of them truly able to comprehend it, but she was most certainly caught off guard by his simple interest in her. His decency, his class, his gentleness…she was deeply intrigued with him. She simply nodded her response, unable to produce any words. _

_"I'm Jack, by the way. Jack Darby," he said, holding out a steady hand to the timid soul beside him. _

_Jack Darby. She let the name roll around in her mind a little before stretching out her hand and shaking his, blushing at the firmness behind his rather large hand. _

_"Aulora," she responded. _

_He began to blush, as well, at the pure sweetness of her voice, so clear and kind. _

_"Have you been to Austin's Christmas party before?" he asked, gesturing to the crowd of kids around them. _

_She nodded her head. "This is my fifth one. But I think I'm only invited because our fathers work together," she explained, Jack startled by her abruptness. Most kids he knew obsessed over this Christmas party, bragging to everyone for weeks when they finally received the invitation in the mail. Being invited to Austin's Christmas party was pretty big, everyone trying to befriend the small, pudgy trouble-maker just to make it to this annual celebration. And here, this strange girl before him didn't seem too thrilled to be there, trying to absorb herself in the book. _

_"Yeah. I think he invited me because we worked on a science project this year," he said, simply shrugging. And Aulora knew he was probably right. Though Austin wasn't a very well-respected person, he continually surrounded himself with well-to-do, upstanding kids with spoiled desires. Jack didn't seem like a boy who worried about the materialistic and superficial things Austin and his "friends" did. But that's what made him all the more kind and respectable in her eyes. _

_"But I'm happy I came," Jack interjected, watching as Aulora's bright blue eyes intensely studied him. _

_"Why?" she asked. _

_"Because I wouldn't have met the prettiest and nicest girl in school," he said, watching as her small cheeks quickly matched the color of the red ribbon around the tree. _

_And the three adults watched contently as their children stayed by that Christmas tree the rest of the night, talking the hours away with anything and everything their minds could think of, smiling and giggling amongst each other, not a care in the world of what was going on around them. _

_The young Darby waited, patiently, until the next Christmas party came, finally able to see the young McAllister again. But he returned to find an empty spot next to the tree that year. It was only days later, when he watched as Aulora's mom, dad and aunt were slowly lowered into the ground, that he wasn't going to see her again for a long, long time. _

**(Later that night)**

Ratchet quickly turned his head to the sound of a small yelp off to his right. He spotted Aulora, resting on a second med bay he had pulled out for her. And after hearing another series of small yells coming from her direction, he quickly rushed to her side, kneeling down on one knee.

Her body was rigidly bent, her arms tightly grasping her arms and her legs horrifically twitching in un-natural motions. Her limbs shook with an unprecedented force, as if shivering in horror. He watched as small beads of sweat had begun to drip down the sides of her red, flushed face along with streams of tears. Her mouth quivered, as another series of moans and yells echoed from her mouth. They sounded painful, as if echoing from the bowls of the Pits themselves, coated fiercely with sorrow and despair. Ratchet almost fell backwards after she released a deafening scream that tore ruthlessly at his spark.

And with a supernatural force, she immediately jerked up into a sitting position, letting out one more painful yell before her eyes flew open. Ratchet laid his hand on her backside, gently rubbing this thumb between the shoulder blades of her back.

"Shhhh, it's alright, Aulora. You're safe," he gently reassured.

She clutched a hand to her furiously beating chest and another one on her mouth, as if trying to stifle another wave of screams she might not be able to control. He felt her body shaking in complete shock and fear, her eyes frantically darting all around her, trying to get her bearings on where she was.

"Everything's fine, Aulora. It was just a nightmare," Ratchet soothingly explained. He had seen this millions of times. One of the most common forms of PTSD among the troops were recurring nightmares, some so hellish it would make Unicron stir in his sleep. He remembered working late nights and hearing the howls of agony that would rip through the empty hallways like swords through mesh.

Aulora had finally unlatched her hand from her mouth, her heavy breathing finally settling down.

Ratchet opened his subspace and drew out a small water bottle, having started a stash of them after discovering recently how soon it took for organics to perish from dehydration.

Aulora gratefully took the water from him, taking a few steady gulps before closing the cap and relaxing her on-edge muscles.

"Are you alright?" Ratchet asked, still keeping his steady hand on her back.

She slowly nodded her head, but avoided his gaze.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. He could see her face trying to register his question. Had he gone too far? He was almost startled when he heard Aulora's gentle, quiet voice respond.

"If you're not busy, there is something that I've been meaning to tell….somebody, it's just…I haven't been able to find the words to explain it," she replied.

An almost satisfied smile came over Ratchet's faceplate as he nodded to the small human.

"I'm all audio receptors," he replied.

"Well, it all started when Optimus first fell sick. At first I actually thought it was Arcee—"

_**we get a little taste of Ratchet's history and Jack/Aulora's history. you'll find these two have a pretty tight friendship throughout the story. **_

_**so love it? hate it? leave me comments. **_


	3. A Chance At Redemption

**hey hey hey!**

**first things first, i am so sorry about the lateness. i wanted to make sure i took care of ALMOST everything in this story that needed to be accomplished. it was a doozy. thank you all you lovely readers for hanging in there. you guys are the bomb. hope this was well worth the horrible wait. and please don't hesitate to comment. and go check out my other story in the Wolverine and the X-Men archive, The Eternal Supernova Theory. **

**A CHANCE AT REDEMPTION**

**_OUT ON THE BATTLEFIELD._**

Another one. Another stupid relic. Just when she thought she was done briefing Fowler on Team Prime's strategy of containment for the organic-only relic, Ratchet called them out again. Only this time, this was a Cybertronian friendly relic. Well, that is for the one who was wielding it.

Arcee gripped the Spark Extractor tightly within the nook of her arm, glaring at the Decepticon Medical Examiner, daring the red sports car to take it from her. To two skeptically watched the other, both of them breathing heavily as the sound of fatal blaster shots whizzed around them.

"Come on, Knockout. Try and take it," Arcee victoriously taunted, already confident at the sight of the falling Decepticon drone bodies around her that Team Prime was going to walk away with that relic. However, her triumphant smile quickly turned into a skeptically frown as she watched cautiously as the Aston Martin's eyes gleamed with an unseen feeling of success.

"As much as I would love to continue this heated battle with you, my dear Arcee, I have a new friend I want you to meet. I know he'll just rock your world," he replied, a smile crossing his face-plates.

It was an understatement to say the two-wheeler was caught off guard. With his infamous electric prod in hand, Arcee begrudgingly admitted that if the self-righteous medical officer had stayed at it a little longer, he would've been able to get the upper hand on her. Without Optimus's size and fire-power, it was no doubt harder for their trio tag-team to inflict as much damage as they had made without Optimus's much-needed assistance. The young Prime had fallen into the routine, over the past week, of being the eyes and ears for the relic, safely securing the artifact as Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead fended off the Decepticons. And when their leader became preoccupied with Megatron, their tightly-knit, organized system of fighting allowed Optimus to call out to one of his soldiers and instruct them to obtain the relic, knowing the others had his back.

It was haphazard, to say the least, of what their plan of attack was that afternoon. On top of the absence of their leader, simply knowing that he still remained in a coma back at base was enough to tilt Bulkhead, Arcee and Bumblebee completely off their axis. The young scout was the easiest to read, his punches and kicks so sporadic and unconfidently violent it almost appeared it was his first day on the job. Bulkhead had lost his train of attention numerous times, being overtaken by several shots that any rookie could have avoided. And though Arcee still remained cool and collected as always, a quick look into her mystical blue and violet optics would convince anyone that she was battling her own demons on and off the battlefield.

The battle seemed to almost instantly hush and still as the sound of overhead jets reached their audio receptors. Everyone, including the Decepticons quickly peered up to the sky at the sound of familiar, yet equally strange flyer. The Decepticon drones simultaneously began to retreat behind Starscream, Knockout and Breakdown, all of them smiling smugly at the still clueless Autobots.

_"Megatron?" _Bumblebee asked, looking over to his teammates.

"No. Same size but definitely different engine," Bulkhead replied, straining his audio receptors harder to the pattern of the whooshing wind.

"The 'Cons don't have any Seekers as big as Megatron," Arcee added.

Team Prime's suspicions were answered as a dark shape flew like a rocket down from the sky, shaking the ground as it forcefully landed. As the dust cleared, the three Autobots couldn't help but stare, mouths agape, at the beastly flyer before them, his armor a dark midnight blue, with splashes of yellow and piercing red eyes.

"Ok, I still don't know who it is," Bulkhead whispered to his comrades as the looming shadow of the beast advanced on them, pedes colliding with the ground in an explosion of trembles.

_"He has a twin?"_ Bumblebee gasped, flashbacks of Optimus and his excursion in Nevada's deserts clouding his mind.

The mech's eyes narrowed, his lip curling in a growl, as his booming voice addressed the Autobots.

"I am Dreadwing. And for the death of my brother, all Autobot scum will pay with their lives!"

_**BACK AT AN ASYLUM IN JASPER, NEVADA.**_

"If she is a Decepticon, any prolonged amount of time in your mind could offer her enough information of the team and our base's whereabouts," Ratchet commented, pondering in thought as he rubbed at his chin.

"I know," she replied. She turned back up to look at the medic. "So what do we do?" she asked.

Ratchet continued to remain deep in thought for a few more moments, letting his CPU catch up with all of the information that had been laid out before him.

"The situation must be addressed, somehow someway. If she is an ally and telling the truth, we must aid her. If not, than we must deal with this threat at once before she ends up gaining enough knowledge of us to issue a devastating assault," Ratchet reasoned.

He turned his eyes back to the small human before him.

"Is she in your head right now?" he asked.

Aulora shook her head. "I think she's too weak from our last conversation," she replied.

"So there is something sapping away at her energy, whether she is on the threshold of death, or not," Ratchet commented, letting that sink in and eliminate a few possible explanations he had created.

"What do you think we should do?" Aulora asked wearily, already rubbing at her bloodshot, stinging eyes.

"I don't know, Aulora. I am no Optimus. He would be the one to provide a better plan of attack," Ratchet explained quietly, as if the leader beside the two could hear them converse.

"So then we're going to Cybertron?" she asked.

"First of all, if we do become that desperate, which I wish upon the All Spark we don't, there is most certainly no _we. _Cybertron isn't safe for natives," he said, gesturing to himself, "than for a novice inhabitant, such as yourself. No, Cybertron would be our last option."

"But what other options are there?" Aulora asked. "We need to go see her for ourselves and figure out if she's on our side, or the other," she explained.

Though Ratchet hated to admit it, Aulora was right. They couldn't afford to relax and wait for Stella to make contact again and they needed Aulora to find her mind amongst…well whatever was left of Cybertron. If she was an Autobot, it was their obligation and moral duty to help her. If she was a Decepticon, they needed to put a stop to her before she ended up gaining every secret they ever owned and relaying it to Megatron. And the only way they were going to find out, for sure, where her allegiance lay, was they would have to see her, face to face.

_**LATER ON THAT AFTERNOON.**_

"What!?" Bulkhead asked, deeply confused.

"You're kidding…right?" Arcee asked, peering down at the medic as he hunched over Bumblebee's wings, gently trying to repair a few painful scratches that had been inflicted by a very aggravated Decepticon SIC, especially after the young scout roughly round-house kicked the Seeker straight into a bush rich with large thorns. Ratchet was thankful the trio had commed for a bridge right after Dreadwing's introduction, knowing only Optimus was equipped to handle a threat such as that of a extremely loyal Decepticon.

_"That place is really-OOWWW!"_ Bumblebee wailed, just as Ratchet's welders gently traced over a small patch of wiring along the wing's connective joints.

"Just a few more patches, Bumblebee," Ratchet replied, gently and apologetically, wincing himself as the scorching hot tools grazed against exposed and extremely sensitive wires. The young Praxian was not only grateful for Arcee's steady hand in his, reassuringly squeezing his digits when Ratchet's welders came too close, but also for the fact that his charge was in school, hating to see the look on Raf's face when he was in pain.

"I do not like the prospect, myself, of embracing Cybertron's rather foul and unkempt atmosphere, but we are dealing with a dangerous situation of possible discovery. Until any of us are able to make a sound piece of judgment concerning this "Stella" are lives and the lives of our human allies are at stake. For all we know, Stella could be probing Aulora's mind right now for information," Ratchet explained.

"Or she might not be," Arcee replied.

"Are you willing to take that risk?" Ratchet asked.

Arcee remained silent, Ratchet knowing the front-liner would never do anything brash, especially when it involved the safety of her teammates, and her human.

"So what, we're just going to walk around Cybertron and hope that we're going to stumble upon her?" Bulkhead asked.

"That's implying we even make it to Cybertron. I'm assuming you're looking to seize the 'Con's spacebridge again," Arcee questioned.

"Actually, if my calculations are fairly accurate, we won't have to," Ratchet explained.

"Oh yeah, and where are we going to find another one, huh? You lookin' to rebuild the one we blew up!?" Bulkhead asked.

"No, Bulkhead, let's not be foolish here! I have plans for Aulora and I, along with Raf's assistance, to hack into a spacebridge on Cybertron."

_"Wait, what?"_ Bumblebee asked, hoarsely.

"Ok, now I _know _you've got a secret stash of high-grade," Bulkhead replied sarcastically, though his voice didn't sound quite so sure.

With the incredible speed and swiftness, Ratchet grabbed a well-scratched wrench and threw it with great speed and accuracy, his scowl tightening with gratification as the tool made a solid clang against the Wrecker's head.

"What the Pit, Ratchet!?" Bulkhead exclaimed, rubbing his sore head.

"This is no time to be fooling around, Bulkhead! Aside from our lives, Aulora's safety is at grave risk! If Stella was truly an ally of the Decepticons, it would take no effort at all to completely crush Aulora's mind with a simple thought and leave the youngling completely brain dead!" Ratchet fiercely exclaimed, challenging the Autobots before him to question the unbelievable amount of lives at stake due to this small but radical new discovery.

The gravity of the medic's statement rendered the bots speechless. Even Bulkhead had stopped rubbing his sore head to ponder over Ratchet's statement. Their stared pensively down at the floor.

_"Why didn't she tell us sooner_?" Bumblebee asked quietly.

"Truly, I do not blame her. If I had been subject to similar events she has faced in the past few weeks, I would not want to divulge _anything_ to _anyone_. All of this is foreign to her; a mind connection, personally designed relics and not to mention the death of a mech she truly adored," Ratchet explained, Arcee's eyes noticeably growing cloudy as they shifted back down to the floor. "We have expected her to handle this as a soldier, for that's what we all are. I blame myself for not approaching the human sooner and consulting her about any troubles," Ratchet sighed, momentarily stopping in his work.

Arcee turned back up to Ratchet with determination in her eyes. "So what do you need us to do?" she asked.

Bulkhead and Bumblebee turned to her with startled eyes.

"Arcee, you can't be serious!? You're just going to let Ratchet take Aulora to Cybertron!?" the Wrecker exclaimed.

"Not without us, he isn't. So what's the plan, Ratchet?" she asked again.

"Due to our lack of fire power," he started, nodding over to the still comatose leader, "and our currently crippled Scout—"

_"I am not crippled! I'm fine, Doc!"_ Bumblebee exclaimed, almost causing Ratchet to stumble with his still extremely hot welders.

"You are not fit for duty, Bumblebee! Call it what you want, but you are confined to base until further notice!" the medic exclaimed, the Scout noticeably slouching with defeat.

"As I was saying, due to our lack of reinforcements, I came upon a rather difficult but possible alternative to reaching Cybertron without seizing and holding the Decepticons' space bridge," Ratchet explained.

"Which would be—"

"To get Aulora to pry Stella's mind for the femme's location. Aulora informed me that "Stella" is on life support while at the same time keeping her in temporary stasis as she heals. There are only 5 facilities on Cybertron that have equipment similar to the description, and each one is equipped with an emergency override space bridge," Ratchet explained.

"What's that?" Bulkhead asked, trying desperately to keep up with the medic's fast thought process.

"They were used in med facs. If no one was there to open a ground bridge for any emergency personnel, if they had the unlock code, they could enter it into the space bridge's frequency and the main computer would automatically open a bridge from their position to the facility," Arcee explained, remembering back when a particular rescue team that had been deployed to aid her and a few other fallen teammates, had used that method of transport.

"Precisely. If this femme is telling the truth, with a simple 4 character code we could bridge straight from Earth to the femme's medical facility," Ratchet explained.

"Why is she still there in the first place? Medically induced stases are temporary. Once the patient's healed, it's shut off," Arcee asked.

"We'll find out when we get there, I assume," Ratchet replied.

"Does Aulora know she's going to Cybertron?" Bulkhead asked.

"She was actually the one who came up with the idea," Ratchet added, slowly smoothing the fresh welds on Bumblebee's armor before finishing up.

"So when do we leave?" Arcee asked, watching as Ratchet powered down his tools and stood up from his hunched form over Bumblebee's back.

"As soon as Aulora arrives back from school. Agent Fowler has also agreed to supply us with a suit that should protect Aulora from Cybertron's lack of oxygen and abundance of chemicals," he added.

"Any progress from Optimus?" Bulkhead asked, turning back around to sadly watch his still unconscious leader.

"Vitals have slowly started to stabilize. The serum most definitely decreased the concentration of the virus. Now, there's just the obstacle of Optimus waking up," the medic explained.

_**ON THE DECEPTICON WARSHIP.**_

"Dreadwing. My most loyal soldier. It has been awhile. I was pleased to hear from Soundwave your arrival to Earth and that you had already aided my soldiers in battle," the Lord of Darkness addressed, watching as the large Seeker slowly rose from his crouched bow before his master.

"Indeed, Lord Megatron. I had no intention of traveling this far into this corner of the galaxy. But the passing of my brother tore through my spark and guided me here, to this rather remote planet," Dreadwing explained.

"Yes, it was a rather…trying time for the Decepticons when news reached of Skyquake's….demise," Megatron replied, acid on his tongue, as he turned to glare at his SIC, who trembled beneath his master's dangerous glower.

"And that is why I am here Lord Megatron. I offer my undying service to you, Master, in the fight against the Autobots. For I vow, upon my spark, that every last one will pay dearly for what they did to Skyquake," the twin Seeker grumbled.

A vicious and electric smile caressed Megatron's face plate. "Excellent," he replied.

_**BACK AT TEAM PRIME'S BASE.**_

"I don't know if I can do this, Ratchet."

The small, soft voice aroused the medic from his deep thoughts, as he turned to address Aulora. He watched, slightly amused, as she stared up at him with wide, piercing blue optics, her small body enlarged to twice her size by the immense space suit that cupped around her body like a billowing parachute. And despite her journey ahead of her to an unknown, mysterious planet, made known to her only through old, childhood tales, the senior medical officer knew that that wasn't what the tiny human was referring to.

"In all honesty, Aulora, I'm not quite sure if you can physically accomplish it, either. But we must try," he explained to her, resting his large fingers upon her shoulder, crouching down to look at little femme in the eyes. And at that moment, he made a silent vow to himself and to the universe, that when they returned from Cybertron, and they were able to get Optimus back up on his feet, he was going to rehabilitate the patient before him. There was no avoiding it. Whether it be more sleep, a peaceful mind-set, a better grasp on her mental connection, the medic was intent on finally relieving the youngling before him of any sufferings. He was immediately filled with utter shame that he had let her condition continue on this long, though he hid it very well beneath his determined, straight-lined expression.

She slowly nodded her head. She could do this. If she did it under hundreds of feet of water with the pressure of a drowning leader upon her shoulders, sifting through Stella's mind should be…something along the lines of a piece of cake.

She closed her eyes and let her mind relax and gently fold in on itself, feeling the familiar daunting immensity of her mind before her, her empty thoughts dancing across the empty, spacious air before her like small gusts of wind. She let her fuzzy, borderless mind flow contently out of its constrictions within her head. She reveled in the awesomeness of her mind almost floating above her body, its possible paths of travel now limitless as it discovered its release from its cage. And it was here, in this realm of uncertainty and freedom where her mind found another in close proximity. She almost melted in utter ecstasy at the feeling of Optimus golden, honey like mind and soul floating throughout the expanse of mental waves around them. She could feel him immediately reach out to her prescience and envelop her in a warm, strong, protective embrace. But she felt the shivering dagger of fear tear ruthlessly at her heart as Optimus's mind continued to revel in hers. It was a free mind. Unlike hers, Optimus's was not anchored to a body, a soul. It was simply floating outside the domain of his body with nowhere to go. It couldn't return home. His comatose body a released the binds around his mind, letting fly away. It brought cruel pain to her gut to watch his inner being be so lost and free. And it pained her even greater to know that she didn't have time, at that moment, to comfort the lost soul. She had another objective. And as every nerve, every fiber of her being screamed in agony at the feeling of helplessness clouding over Optimus's mind as he felt her slip slowly away from him, she gently pushed her leader out of her mind and focused at the task again.

She once again let her mind relax, letting its boundaries open once more. But this time, she pushed them away further. She felt herself nudging against the invisible bonds around her mind. Though free from her head, she was still confined to its limited range of motion. It was chained to base, it was only allowed the space to travel to Optimus's, and no further. But she needed to go further. But the walls wouldn't budge. She tried to muster every ounce of strength she had, already able to taste the true flavor of freedom on the other side of the walls. Once she truly broke free, there was no stopping her. But she couldn't do it. Her mind was nowhere strong enough to handle such independence. She was still a novice.

Suddenly, though, she couldn't help but sense something beside her mind. It was weak, but within seconds, its small familiar nudge against her prescience made her smile in complete elation. She pleasured in the all too familiar red and blue color scheme that softy invaded her senses.

Optimus.

She felt his soothing prescience slide right next to hers, as she could feel it ripple as it too began breaking the walls down beside her. She almost cried at the sight before her, but a firm nudge once more from her guardian reminded her that time was of the essence.

But she had so many questions.

How did he know what she was trying to do?_ Did_ he know was she was trying to do? How did he, in a coma, have the mental capacity to give her strength? How did he, in a coma, have enough sense to know where to go or what to do?

_Aulora, focus. _

She felt like sobbing in content at his firm, booming voice as it echoed happily across her heart. But he was right; she needed to focus. She slid right next to Optimus, their energies clasping together perfectly, as with one finally push, the duo collided into the barrier and sent it shattering across the mental waves. Aulora suddenly felt her mind jolt with nauseating speed out of the base, leaving Optimus's mind behind her. She reeled back in fear as she looked down on the shrinking shape of Jasper, her vision cruising through the atmospheres, until she stared in utter fascination at the stars and galaxies dancing around her. But her mind continued to sail through space, past the moon and planets and out of her galaxy, fueled by an energy she had no idea she possessed. Suddenly, she was before Cybertron. And just when she thought she would get the chance to finally see the long lost planet, her line vision immediately changed, zooming into a particular area, where she could feel a cold, strange prescience. It was a mind like Optimus's, but it was an odd one. She didn't know how to describe than simply a puzzle piece that belonged to a different puzzle. It was like the energy didn't fit the host. She immediately knew it was Stella's mind she was sensing, but she couldn't describe what was wrong with it.

Her senses suddenly jolted to life with a single thought; the code. Her mind seemingly already sensing it had what it needed, it began to fall. All Aulora could do was scream in silence as her free-falling mind fell out and away from Cybertron, plummeting down through space at a speed she couldn't even process. Suddenly, she was plunging past the moon, and saw clouds enter her vision. With an unprecedented gravity, her mind descending straight back into her body, her limbs suddenly coming to life as she looked hazily around her atmosphere.

"Aulora, are you alright!?" A faint voice sounded somewhere before her.

"Omega 1 J Delta," she felt her throat whisper hoarsely, her body still numb.

"What?"

"Omega 1 J Delta."

And suddenly, Aulora's world turned pitch black, her body limply collapsing to the floor in exhaustion.

_**ON CYBERTRON.**_

A small gust of wind brushed against the arid ground, taking with it a few pieces of burnt debris and the heavy stench of dry Energon as it traveled further across the expanse. The odor of death hung thick within the air, floating hauntingly above the scattered body of fallen soldiers that littered the ground like grains of sand on a shore, along with thick smoke that continued to billow from burnt building and cities, eaten by fire eons ago, their ashes still smoldering.

Suddenly, a flash of green erupted in the middle of the dark and dreary expanse, followed by the appearance of a dark purple front-liner, a green Wrecker and the Autobot CMO, cupping an unconscious human gently in his hand. The Wrecker and front-liner kept their weapons trained on the world around them, expertly peering around their surroundings for any signs of danger, but they couldn't help but sneak long-awaited peeks at their old home, though it no longer resembled the state of its former glory. Their saddened eyes beheld their cherished planet, one they had fought millennia to protect only to discover it had began to fade the day it was first created. Even during its Golden Age, Cybertron's caste system had doomed the planet from the beginning.

"If Aulora's code is correct, that means Stella should be stationed at the Beta Triage Facility right outside Polyhex," Ratchet explained peering around.

"We're standing at the old entrance, so the patient department should be just ahead," Bulkhead informed, pointing at a fairly large, somewhat intact building in the distance.

"So then let's get moving. The faster we find her, the faster we can leave," Ratchet replied, glancing hesitantly as the shifting shadows of the demolished city. To him, Cybertron had become nothing more than an abandoned graveyard.

"Alright, I'll lead. Bulk, you stay behind Ratchet and keep your eyes peeled. Megatron no doubt kept a stash of his lackey's here to guard the place," Arcee called over to the Wrecker, the latter replying with a firm nod.

And the group started off, making their way over and under fallen buildings and structures, all of them haunted by the sight of their home and the memories that gathered with it.

_**BACK AT BASE.**_

_"Let me out there!" _Bumblebee practically screamed at the monitor, his trembling fingers locked around the railing as the screeching sound of metal against metal echoed through the base.

"No, Bumblebee! You are in no shape to fight and would only hinder us!" the Autobot medical exclaimed, the three children surrounding the yellow scout terrified by the rare show of fearful urgency in Ratchet's voice.

_"But Ratchet –"_

"I said no, Bumblebee!" Ratchet yelled back at him through the open comm. Link.

The scout looked crestfallen and ashamed, feeling utterly worthless as the rest of his teammates struggled to overcome two patrolling Insecticons, while keeping Aulora out of harm's reach. Raf watched with saddened eyes as his guardian ran his shaking digits along his head, beeping out a long string of curses as he grumbled to himself.

"Bee, it's not your fault," Raf reassured, depressed to see his Autobot in such a miserable mood.

"Yeah, Bee. Bulk and Cee know what they're doing," Miko added.

_"Are you kidding me?! Megatron left most of the Insecticons back on Cybertron to kill off any Autobot stupid enough to return home. Why? Because they were killing machines. And now they're up against two with Aulora and Ratchet to look after!" _Bumblebee exclaimed, frustratingly waving his arms in the air.

Raf translated for the other two humans.

"So they need more fire power," Jack reasoned.

"And where're they going to get that!? Bee's out of commission and Optimus is having an eternal siesta over there," Miko exclaimed.

Jack's eyes suddenly lit with realization as he remembered back to his earlier conversation with Aulora.

"There's still one person we can call for back-up," Jack explained.

_"Wheeljack left the sector weeks ago and won't return until next week! He's too far off to call for help!"_ Bumblebee exclaimed helplessly.

"I'm not talking about Wheeljack," Jack replied, after Raf translated, watching as realization suddenly crawled into the faces of his human companions. Miko's face twinkled with a devious grin.

"Alright. Time to wake up the Cheshire Cat," she added.

As the powerful surge of boredom was seconds away from pulling the large Cybertronian cat into another lazy sleep, his ears suddenly perked and twitched at the sound of running. He slowly opened his lethargic eyelids and peered over his shoulder at his cell door behind him. He leapt back in surprise, nimbly landing on his feet, his body crouched and ready for attack as he stared back at 4 sets of optics.

"Woah there kitty," Miko playfully called out to him.

"It's ok, Proditor. We're not here to hurt you," Jack said, gently spreading his open palms out to the creature, who had slowly made its way up to the bars. He glanced warily up at the yellow Scout, who returned an equally cautious look to the beast.

"What's wrong?" he asked, clearly seeing a look of panic on the children's faces. "Is something wrong with Optimus?"

"No, Optimus is fine," Jack reassured.

"Ratchet, Arcee and Bulkhead went to Cybertron with Aulora and they're getting beaten by a pair of Insecticons," Raf urgently explained. A look of completely and utter shock befell the Ater Tigris face.

"What business did they have traveling back to Cybertron? And why bring Aulora?" he asked, his face crunched in confusion, as he turned to the raven-haired teenager before him, assuming he was the only one who was going to give him straight forward answers.

"Aulora discovered another bot inside her mind and they went to investigate and make sure that they weren't a threat. They brought Aulora because she's the only one with the ability to find her," Jack explained further. He watched as a noticeable flash of recognition sparked across Proditor's face, before immediately switching back to its concerned scowl.

"What can I do?" he asked.

"We need you to go help them," Jack replied. The Ater Tigris was taken aback by the proposition.

"You're…you're letting me out?" he asked, his question more directed to the Autobot.

_"For now," _Bumblebee replied, carefully watching the dangerous creature before him. Proditor was able to notice the young Autobot's trigger fingers twitching, ready to transform his blasters in a flash.

"Why, so you can lock me back up in here later?" he growled, frowning at the Team Prime teammates before him.

"Proditor, listen to me. Aulora is in danger. You're her only hope right now," Jack pleaded, stepping mere inches from the cage door, looking the beast directly in the eye. He knew he had caught the beast's attention. Whether it was from sheer guilt, or Proditor had actually grown fond of the girl, the Ater Tigris's fearful face betrayed his hardened emotions at the moment. He cared about her and Jack could tell from his face that the supposedly heartless creature before him appeared to be prepared to break down any walls in order to help Aulora. Proditor locked his golden optics with Jack's hazels and firmly nodded his head.

Jack turned to the Autobot beside them. "Bumblebee, open the doors," he said.

_"That's it!? We're just going to believe him!?" _the young scout exclaimed.

"Bee, come on. The others need help," Raf pleaded with his guardian. The young Autobot sighed and typed in the door's access code. Proditor watched cautiously as the bars lowly lifted from the ground, immediately feeling an incredible rush of freedom as he looked at the empty space before him. He slowly stepped out, almost smiling to himself at the change in lighting, from the dark cell to the well-lit wing.

"Hurry," Jack called out, him and the others already sprinting down the hallway. Proditor gave another warm, deep chuckle at his new found freedom and bounded after them.

_**BACK ON CYBERTRON.**_

She clutched her hands tightly around the warped piece of metal, her hands screaming in protest at the sharp edges that dug at her still burned and sore palms and fingers. She ignored the irritation that had crawled up her exposed knees and thighs from the splashes of dried Energon on the ground beneath her, the Cybertronian life blood sending burning itchiness along her skin. She furiously wiped away the tears that blurred her vision as she quickly stuck her head out from her hiding place, chancing another glance at the ensuing battle.

Arcee screamed and yelled in protest as a large, beastly Insecticon continued to clutch her abdomen harder within its grasp, seemingly unaware of her furious kicking against his chest. Despite Ratchet's admirable attempts to free the front-liner, mercilessly slicing his blades across the beast's back, a hard smack from the Insecticon sent the medic sprawling on the ground, dazed for a few moments before he recollected himself and repeated the process. Bulkhead was in deadlock tie with his sparring partner, the Insecticon and Wrecker dealing each other an equal amount of blows and shots, neither one of them ready to back down.

Aulora began to fear the worst as both Autobots and Insecticons aroused the shadows from their dormant sleep with screams and yells that pierced through the deserted planet. It wouldn't take long for others to hear the sounds of the fight, and Aulora feared who would respond to the call. With creatures such as these, it was a slim to none chance any other Autobots would be there to help. So that left the possibility that more Insecticons would join the fray. And what were they to do then? Arcee and Ratchet were barely making it through with one shared between the two. What were to happen if each Autobot had to take one, or even two on themselves? Ratchet, sad as it was to admit, would be the first to fall, most likely followed by Arcee, mainly due to her size and then Bulkhead.

Aulora turned back around and clutched her head in her hands, trying to calm her trembling body. What were they going to do? Her question to the universe seemed to be answered as a large blast erupted behind the young girl, sending her into a fit of screaming as she was covered in a blanket of dust. She turned around, terrified, to see a stray shot had completely blown her hiding place to bits.

"AULORA, RUN! GET OUT OF HERE, KID! Bulkhead screamed out to her, his diverted attention earning him a brutal punch to the stomach. The teenager, quivering with fear and anxiety, slowly rose to her feet, only to fall back hard on her butt as she watched, terrified, as a dark, billowing shadow loomed over her body. She fearfully looked up, screaming in utter horror as her eyes were met with a gleaming red, elongated triangle for optics.

The Autobots' stomach caught in their throats as they listened to their human ally yell with utter horror at the creature hunched over her. They were almost too scared to look, too scared to see their ultimate nightmare confirmed.

Aulora felt her heart shivering madly beneath her chest, as she shut her eyes, knowing there was no use for any type of retaliation. With a Cybertronian at least 30 times the size of her, she would never stand a fighting chance.

Suddenly, her eyes flew open at the echo of a familiar roar, its absolute power radiating across her soul like a tidal wave. She sat there, her mouth hanging wide as a shadow clinging to the Insecticon suddenly materialized, a dark grey Ater Tigris now hunched strategically upon the creature's shoulder. And before the Insecticon could process what had happened, the Ater Tigris let out another heart-wrenching growl as he lashed a fatal blow to the Insecticon's head, the creature slowly stumbling and then collapsing to the ground.

With one, single graceful leap, Proditor landed on the ground, inches from Aulora. "Get on!" he commanded, quickly lowering his second half to the ground. Without a moment's hesitation, Aulora clambered upon his back and closed her eyes. What followed was absolutely indescribable.

Aulora began to feel a chilly tingle travel from her head, all the way down her spine and legs and collecting in her toes. She could only gasp as her buzzing nerves continued to bounce hyperactively, until she could've sworn she felt a gust of wind deep within her stomach. She chanced a look at her surroundings, giving only a small wheeze as she looked on with a mix of horror and astonishment at her disappearing hand, small patches of color gathering in the air until it was erased all together. She almost doubled over in fear at the feeling of the dry, arid wind whistling right through her body.

"Hang on, Aulora!" Proditor called out, now merely a voice below her. With breathtaking speed and agility, Proditor bounded across the small battlefield, leaping from small rooftop to small rooftop, until eventually landing at the peak of a still intact building in less than 10 seconds. Aulora felt a small shudder from the beast below her, watching as the color of his deathly dark metal armor slowly started to return. She turned to her hand to watch, amazed, as its invisibility seemed to slide off like a glove, leaving her hand twisting and turning in raw confusion. Her body slowly slid off of Proditor's back and collected in a numb heap on the ground, as she continued to stare at her body in amazement. She turned with raw mystification back up at the Ater Tigris.

"Stay here," he commanded, before leaping off the rooftop and out of sight. She quickly shook off her bewilderment and slowly clamored over to the small wall of the rooftop, peering over at the battle below her.

Proditor suddenly stood before the Insecticon that now had Ratchet and Arcee in its fatal grasp, his legs spread evenly apart, his tail twitching in the air, his head lowered to the ground as he issued another growling battle cry. The Insecticon immediately released its attention from the two Autobots, dropping them to the ground, as it turned to address the challenging beast.

"Proditor. So the rumors are true," the Insecticon called out to him, his voice like nails scratching against brick.

"You're going to have to be a little more specific on which rumor, Swiftlock," Proditor answered, never once altering his stance.

"That you are alive and working with the enemy. I was banking that your little trip to the DJD facility would either change your mind or take care of you, permanently," the Insecticon replied, a large, courageous smirk on his face.

"Why, so that when you returned to Soundwave, you didn't have to tell him you and 10 other bugs failed to apprehend an expensive injured lab rat?"Proditor threw back, smirking at the enraged look that flew over Swiftlock's face.

"When I'm through with you, Tarn'll thank me from the Pit for sending you back to him so he can finish you off!" he angrily exclaimed.

Proditor only continued to smirk. "Say hi to him for me, will you?"

With one last angry roar, the Insecticon transformed and flew at the Ater Tigris, its blaster blazing with energy. With one swift leap, Proditor was soaring over the flying beast. And with one quick swipe, Proditor latched his claws into each Insecticon wing and ripped them from its back. The creature let out an ear-piercing screech as it collapsed to the ground, Energon drooling from its backside. Proditor threw his head around to see the Insecticon that had been dealing with Bulkhead was now advancing on the fallen Arcee, who was just now starting to become alert to the predicament around her. Proditor growled deep within his stomach and pounced on the Insecticon's back, its claws latching brutally onto its armor.

"Leave her alone!" he bellowed, fearlessly slashing away at the Insecticon's back wiring with his razor-like claws. The creature howled in agony, trying desperately to fling the attacker off of its back. But with one last clobber to the back of the head, the Insecticon was on the ground in seconds, unconscious.

He suddenly yelped in surprise as the third Insecticon grabbed Proditor by his tail and held him up, face to face.

"You will pay for leaving the Decepticons!" it bellowed in the Ater Tigris's face.

"And you will pay for staying!" Proditor replied, quickly slicing his claws across the Insecticon's eyes. The creature roughly dropped the Ater Tigris and clutched his large optic in pain. Quickly spotting Swiftlock lumbering weakly towards them, Proditor roughly grabbed the arm of the Insecticon before him between his teeth, swinging him once around before releasing him, letting him crash into Swiftlock and sending them both crashing to the ground. Swiftlock shifted his glazed over vision to the rooftop above him at the sound of a small gasp, spotting an organic nestled in its shadows. He turned his head weakly toward Proditor, giving him one last smirk.

"You always seem to have a soft spot for the weak. And it always ends up being your demise," he weakly chuckled, with every last ounce of energy he had, Swiftlock transformed his blaster and sent a shot hurtling up towards the rooftop.

"NO!" Proditor yelled.

Aulora turned to retreat, but it was already too late. The sound of the explosion resonated behind her as she screamed at the crumbling floor beneath her. Her arms reached out around, desperately trying to grab something, but nothing appeared. Suddenly, a flash of green shot across Proditor's vision, and Aulora was no longer there, falling to the ground. He turned to his left, along with Bulkhead, Arcee and Ratchet who had stood poised, blasters ready, as the flash of green landed swiftly onto the ground.

As the dust cleared, Proditor and the Autobots stood and stared at a bright, lime green femme, standing no less than a few feet lower than Arcee. With bright blue optics that matched the color of her headlights on her chest plate, the Cybertronian femme had small splashes of black around her audio receptors and a black line down each arm. Ratchet immediately tensed at the sight of an unconscious Aulora in her hand.

"Release the girl now, and we will let you walk away unscathed," he threatened, glaring at the strange Cybertronian before him. Just as he was deep in thought, questioning the needed stupidity for anyone to want to stay behind, he heard the Ater Tigris in front of him gasp.

"Stella!?" Proditor asked, looking at the femme with utter disbelief. She gave him a small smile.

"Hi Proditor. It's been awhile," she replied.

"Wait, you mean…you're Stella, the one who's been inside Aulora's head?" Arcee asked, slightly lowering her guard.

The femme nodded again. "The very one," she answered.

Ratchet continued to glare dangerously at her. "You told Aulora you were in a medically induced stasis, hooked up to life support," he said.

"I was. But the machine keeping me in an induced stasis was damaged during a facility raid years ago and couldn't shut down. I've been fully healed for a long time, but I've been trapped in stasis," she explained, peering down at the small human in her hands. "Thankfully, Aulora is still somewhat of a novice at mind reading. She was a little brutal when obtaining the facility's location from my mind and thankfully, it was enough to wake me up."

Suddenly, all heads turned toward the sky, all startled at the sight of a large cloud of Insecticons flying through the air, headed straight for their position. At the same time, a loud beep resonated from Ratchet's scanner on his arm armor. He quickly opened the panels and gasped, turning to look back up at Aulora.

"Her mask is cracked, probably from the explosion. We need to get her back to base, now!" he urged.

Arcee continued to stare frantically back up at approaching swarm of Insecticons. "Let's get moving, then, before they find out what we did to the other three," Arcee suggested, her blasters ready and sizzling with energy.

"Stella, lead us to the facility's space bridge," he instructed, rudely snatching Aulora from her grasp.

"Go!" Arcee commanded. "We got your backs covered!" Bulkhead added.

Stella led the way through a maze of fallen and scorched debris, with Proditor and Ratchet right on her tail and Arcee and Bulkhead bringing up the rear, shooting at some of the straggling Insecticons who had made it to the front of the swarm.

Suddenly, a shot escaped from an Insecticon's blaster and caught Proditor right in the leg. The Ater Tigris cried out in pain as he stumbled to the ground, his front leg leaking Energon. As the same Insecticon closed in for the fatal blow, Bulkhead jumped in front of the former Decepticon and shot the Insecticon, causing it to crash into several others behind it. The Wrecker and beast gave each other a firm nod of understanding before Proditor weakly pulled himself back up and bounded after the others, Bulkhead close behind him.

They rounded the corner just as Stella activated the space bridge, nestled amongst a few dilapidated walls of what appeared to be a medical examination room.

"Alright, people, let's move!" Arcee called out, keeping her eyes on the approaching swarm of Cybertronian bugs. Ratchet was the first through, cradling Aulora in his arms. Stella ran through after him, with Bulkhead and Proditor straight on her tail. Arcee sent a few more shots into the swarm before jumping through herself, the bridge closing mere seconds later.

_**BACK AT BASE. **_

"Well, I'm here…aren't I? You're not going to send my back to Cybertron, are you?"

Ratchet and Bulkhead gave each other a look of hidden emotion before turning back to the Neutral before them.

"We're not going to send you back, Stella. But you must understand that we can't simply allow you free range of base without, first off, consulting our leader and second verify your story," Ratchet explained.

"Consult me about what?"

All mouths dropped in unison at the sound of an all too familiar baritone voice.

Everyone turned to see their tired leader slowly blink is eyes, raw with exhaustion, at his surroundings.

"Optimus!"

Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee were quickly at their leader's side, smiling with joy at the sight of their coherent leader.

"We're glad to see you're alright, Optimus," Arcee said.

"As am I, Arcee," Optimus replied, his voice stiff with exhaustion.

His still blurry vision caught a shape of green behind his team. Optimus smiled and nodded to her in recognition, already knowing who she was. She returned the nod.

His eyes suddenly twisted in questioning.

"Where is Aulora?" he asked.

Ratchet and team actually chuckled. "Ah, old friend, Aulora is finally listening to her doctor," he smiled. He nodded his head toward the old, ratty couch that had been folded out into a small bed, which stood quietly on the raised section of the base. Laying there, covered in blankets, miscellaneous stuffed animals, and pillows was Aulora, nestled and warmed among the layers of cotton, her head resting on Proditor's warm stomach. With his bandaged and splinted leg hanging over the side of the couch, Proditor slept soundly underneath Aulora, his tail and neck protectively encircling the young girl.

Stella sighed, glancing once more up at the sleeping human before returning her gaze to her hands, almost trembling in fear.

_Why did Proditor have to be here?_ She asked herself.

She sighed once again.

This was going to be a lot harder than she had originally planned.

He knew too much.

**so love it? hate it? leave me comments**


	4. Dancing Around the Subject

**hey hey hey!**

**hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving, and if I'm not able to post another story before the holidays, I wanted to wish all of you a safe and blessed Christmas and New Year's.**

**hope you enjoy this story and sorry about the tardiness. :)**

"Have you asked her yet!?" he growled, his teeth nearly grinding away shavings of metal when they came into contact with each other. His throat burned with acid as he continued to snarl with pure vengeance at the set of dark blue optics before him.

He could feel cold, bare, human skin beside him, Aulora's trembling fingers trying to placate his stiff and rigid form. He could hear her soothing words from behind him, but the rhythm of his raging heart easily drowned the young cub out, wires upon wires pumping hot, burning Energon to his spinning brain.

He was ready to rip every limb from her body.

He had been sleeping heavily beside Aulora, the pain medications causing him to slip, hard into a coma like sleep. He had been groggy when he first awaken, his sight blurry and his movements numb. But upon seeing Aulora suddenly gasp awake from her sleep, simply mumbling about Stella trying to get in her head, he was on his feet in seconds, charging for the lime green Autobot with every intent to kill. His senses had been immediately charged. If it had not been for the fairly foolish Wrecker who had intercepted the two recruits, the floor below them would've been stained, permanently, with the faint, blue glow of Energon.

The dark green Autobot still stood between them, arms spread, greatly underestimating the strength he had to counter-act a possible attack from Soundwave's former lab rat. Arcee and Bumblebee were on their feet in seconds, the purple front-liner and Scout immediately training their guns on the Ater Tigris, still urging the young human to get away from him. Ratchet was reprimanding off to the side, waving a somewhat threatening wrench at both newbies. Optimus was resting in his private quarters.

"HAVE YOU ASKED HER!?" he bellowed once again to Team Prime, his body bent and poised with anger, standing defensively in front of the young McAllister.

"Proditor, stand down!" Ratchet yelled, his eyes dangerously targeted on the ex-Con, daring him to make one more move.

The Ater Tigris turned back to glare menacingly at Stella, seemingly growing angrier at her absolutely petrified face. Her wide eyes, filled with complete fear, almost made Proditor sick. With the treacheries she had committed, and the fact she had brought them back to life with Aulora, made the Ater Tigris regret every letting her through the space bridge back on Cybertron.

"If you won't tell them, I will!" he roared out to her. Stella's frightened eyes only grew wider.

"Proditor, please," she begged, her eyes silently pleading with Proditor to not open his mouth, to keep whatever buried secrets she had under mounds of dirt.

But he was done dancing around the subject. He was done hiding the truth. He was going to do what he had tried so hard to do years and years ago.

"I assume you're all wondering how Stella can somehow communicate with a language created only for the most powerful of Primes," he started, his eyes threatening Stella to object, to tell the others he was lying.

"Proditor, please!" she begged, her eyes clouding over with coolant.

"That's all thanks to a little device called the Telonian chip that the highly noble ex-Con here accepted from Megatron, who pilfered it from Alpha Trion's dead carcass!" he exclaimed.

The room fell in a horrific, deathly silence as all eyes warily turned to the wide-eyed lime green femme, coolant starting to form in her eyes.

"What?" Ratchet whispered.

"Apparently, when Prima was granted the gift, he wasn't such a natural at it as he led everyone else to believe. He couldn't form a normal mind connection with Alpha Trion and had to resort to a contraption Solus Prime created that would help increase the connection they clearly didn't have," Proditor explained, watching the femme warily for any signs of backlash.

"Why?" Arcee whispered, feeling the urge to vomit from just simply looking at the femme before her. Never before had she heard of something so…wrong.

"Because Megatron believed the Stella could use the Telonian chip and with Shockwave's help, learn to utilize it and be able to siphon information from Optimus's mind, knowing he no doubt had the Telonian gift being the bearer of Prima's matrix," Proditor harshly explained, hatred drooling from his mouth. Before Stella could open her mouth to explain, she was interrupted by a small voice, one everyone had to strain their audio receptors to hear.

"You lied to me," Aulora grumbled, finally looking up to make eye contact with Stella. "You told me you were a neutral."

"I was. Proditor and I became friends on the Nemesis and came up with a plan to leave the Cons together," she said, trying to speak through her welling tears.

Aulora felt Proditor shift rigidly beneath her palm, his tail flicking back and forth agitatedly.

"That was until I found out what you allowed Megatron to do!"

"Proditor, I had no choice!"

"You always have a choice, Stella! Megatron wanted a volunteer! You didn't need to do anything! The escape plan was all set and ready! _You_ were the one that wanted to stick around a few extra cycles! You _wanted_ the procedure! I bet it thrilled you to know you could sift through the Prime's mind with ease!"

"I never used it, Proditor!"

"Is that so!? Then why were you scared to come out on the battlefield with me and fight with the Autobots?! Huh!? If you didn't think you did anything wrong, than why did you coop yourself up in your stupid underground lab until it was blown to bits!?"

"Because they wouldn't understand!"

"Of course! _Clearly_, they wouldn't understand the motives behind stealing from the tomb of a deceased Prime and sticking one of their anatomical parts into your own brain! I mean who would!?" Proditor spat out sarcastically.

"You don't understand, Proditor!" Stella wailed.

"No, I understand perfectly! You saw the Telonian chip as an opportunity to contact Optimus Prime and convince him to allow us into his ranks, wiped of all charges and crimes. We'd be like any other Autobot soldier! You wanted the easy way out, Stella! Just like always. You wanted your slate to just be miraculously wiped clean of any sin, rather than working for repentance!"

The lime green Autobot simply stood, dumbfounded at her former friend, her eyes too wide with surprise to find the room or strength to produce tears. She couldn't produce any words. Her brain simply sat there, shaking and stuttering in an effort to simply come to terms with how far she had fallen into this mess. Her only chance at survival, at regaining her sense of purpose again was trashed within mere seconds, all because of a past she tried so hard to rid herself of. Was she so naive to believe she could ever leave it completely behind her?

She closed her eyes for a second, relishing in the dry, arid breeze that swept over the empty mountain top and fell back down to the spacious crater below. The beautiful, golden painted sky cast large, sleeping shadows across the amber sand of the desert area, warning the few creatures of the dry landscape that the winter night was fast approaching.

She didn't want to come up to the top alone. It always startled her, the feeling of complete openness at her fingertips. To peer down at the ground thousands of feet below and registering that there was nothing from stopping her of freefalling all the way down was terrifying to say the least. Sure, she was smart enough to stay in the middle of plateau top, but the thought remained. She was completely open and exposed to the open sky above her, and it scared her to know end. It frightened her even further to know Miko continually came up here with Bulkhead and two sat right on the edge of cliff, letting their legs dangle over it.

Even hundreds of feet from the edge wasn't good enough for her. She wanted a companion there. But after Stella's history was revealed, Ratchet had sternly turned to the young human, quickly and firmly scooped her up into his hand and deposited her on the elevator to the roof, demanding that she stay up there until he deemed it safe to come back down. Safe how, she had wondered. Was she going to go in a cell like Proditor? Or would the Autobots simply show the traitor the door?

In all honesty, she didn't really care at this point. She just wanted Stella gone. She didn't even want to think about her.

All she wanted was someone with her at that moment. But the eerie whistle of the February wind reminded her that she was the only soul out there. Winter vacation meant everyone in Jasper was gone, including her friends. Miko had flown back to Japan just the other night to see her family for the week. Raf and his family were on vacation down in Mexico City, visiting relatives and Jack had begrudgingly gone with his mother to a nurse's conference she had to attend in Washington for a few days. Optimus was still resting and the remainder of Team Prime was trying to placate the situation that had aroused between Proditor and the converted convict.

However, as the fingers she had jammed into her pockets suddenly grazed upon an unnaturally smooth surface, her mind flickered with apprehensive thoughts of truly wanting a companion: Prevus.

Though she was desperate for some company, she doubted she would ever become desperate enough to talk to the Zeta Relic guardian. Nova, on the other hand, had had frequent conversation with the young McAllister. Though their conversations were scattered and short, limited only to the small instances Ratchet had required her assistance, due to Aulora's heavily occupied life, the teenager enjoyed talking to her. She was always sweet, continually asking Aulora how she was doing and reminding her that she was there when assistance may be needed. Aulora had wanted to avoid Prevus all together. After she had first sat down with the two Zeta guardians after their arrival, Aulora was completely thrown off by Prevus's unpleasant and somewhat mean demeanor.

And it agitated her to no end that unlike Nova, Prevus just did not like Aulora. She found it so frustrating that though the two had never met before, the old weapon's specialist was dead-set on hating her.

So she did the only logical thing to do; she avoided him. She kept the small, mystical, little blue orb tucked away in her jacket pocket and never thought twice of bringing it back out. Though the guilt of closing him off so abruptly caused the orb to theoretically burn a whole in her pocket, she found his negativity too malicious for her to handle.

"Are you going to continually keep your sweaty flesh on my little mobile home here, or are you going to finally leave me in peace?"

Aulora almost screamed out in surprise at the sound of another voice, accidentally letting Prevus's Bomb slip out of her pocket and onto the ground, where said Zeta Guardian, within seconds, was hovering above his little "mobile home."

"Sorry, Prevus," Aulora replied.

He huffed a heavy sigh. "Isn't there someone else you could bother?" he asked sarcastically.

"No, I wasn't trying to bother you. I just forgot you were in my pocket," she said, quickly stumbling over her words as she watched the agitation rise in his face.

"Forgot!? Are you responsible at all, Laura!?" he exclaimed.

"Um, it's Aulora," she replied meekly, her words noticeably shaking as she warily watched the stern mech before her.

"Whatever it is, it's a strange name," he scoffed with a simple, unenergetic flick of his wrist.

"And yours isn't?" she asked with a small smile, trying to get the mech before her to smile in some way. "Prevus isn't exactly a common name around here."

"I would hope not. My name was frequently heard among the nobility group of architects and engineers, people of high status and intellect," he announced proudly, lecturing the young human as if she was a mere sparkling.

"Really? What made you want to become a Zeta Guardian?" Aulora asked.

"Well, it certainly wasn't for the likes of you! I was promised a warrior of outstanding and impeccable traits, including the gift I represent; curiosity," Prevus explained harshly.

"I guess I don't exactly fit that mold," Aulora quietly replied, trying to laugh a little at the end of her comment, trying desperately to raise her currently mauled spirit. It didn't work.

"You guess!? You have the backbone and spirit of a pool of Energon!" he exclaimed furiously.

A few moments of palpable silence lapsed between guardian and charge, the empty, howling wind continuing to scratch and screech against the mountain top.

"So then why choose me?" Aulora asked quietly. Prevus turned to look up at her with perplexed eyes.

"Nova told me you could override the relic's system's so you could wait and find someone truly worthy of it. So why stick around here…with me?" she asked, looking more down trodden than inquisitive. And out of all of the crazy and unnatural events that had occurred in the past few days, it was the moment following that scared Aulora the most.

Prevus casually crossed his arms over his chest and the corners of his mouth twitched upward; a small smile.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to hear that question," he chuckled.

It was Aulora's turn to cast the confused glare.

"What?"

"That's what I've been wanting and waiting to hear this whole time, Aulora. I didn't want you to go sulking off and avoid me every time I pestered you. I wanted you to ask me why!" he exclaimed passionately.

Aulora's eyebrows twitched further upward in confusion. "I'm still lost," she replied.

"I'm the Guardian of Curiosity, for crying out loud! All I want you to _do_ is ask questions. I've been blowing you off to see if you would give into natural temptation and ask what the Pit is wrong with me!" he excitedly exclaimed, his eyes glowing with life.

"But what would being angry and negative all the time accomplish?" she asked, still trying to keep up with the Cybertronian's somewhat sporadic thought process.

"Because it keeps things alive and exciting, and it gets you thinking. If I were just chummy and happy with you all the time, what would that accomplish? Anger and agitation crumble those invisible boundaries around your mind that keep you from venturing out into the land of probability and possibilities. We being to grow restless and we crave a new sense of adventure. That's why I like to push your buttons, Aulora. Not because I find you annoying, though you can be at some times, but because it helps reignite that astounding flame of curiosity that captured my attention the first time we met," he explained.

"Just now, by aggravating you like that, you were curious as to why my normal disposition is so hard and cold. Things out of the ordinary cause us to question what exactly is possible in this world," he explained.

A small smile crossed her lips. "My curiosity_ captured_ your attention?"

He heaved a heavy sigh and threw her a 'Really?' face. "Alright, let's not get ahead of ourselves here," he said, rolling his eyes.

"You know, you could've told me this sooner," she replied.

"Yes, but you never asked," he said, with a small, clever smile on his face.

He groggily rubbed at his fuzzy head, his thoughts fresh and wandering with sleep. The overhead lights did not help his squinted eyes, desperately trying to rush fresh optic fluid back to their dry, burning nerves. Though he felt rather refreshed from his lengthened nap, inwardly reprimanding himself for leaving his team alone for so long, he could feel his still tired mind begging for more. He slowly made his way down the wing, almost aghast at this secret attempt of prolonging the start to, what he assumed to be, a long day. Though he scolded himself for pulling off something so immature, his lumbering footfall and hunched stance drowned out not only his thoughts but the obnoxious opinions of the Primes deep within the Matrix whose opinions weren't far from his.

As he neared the open doorway to the main center of base, he could slowly detect two distinct voices mingling together.

"I thought you left them in that drawer," a small feminine voice pointed out.

The young Prime neared the corner and peaked out, spotting his young charge sitting with her legs dangling over the lowered medical bay, her jeans rolled up to reveal patches of red, irritated skin around her knees, the young Prime immediately detecting traces of Energon settling lightly atop her skin and no doubt causing her agitation. The former Orion Pax was already deducing the fact the injury came from her escapade to Cybertron, along with Bulkhead, Arcee, Ratchet and Proditor, and once again he found himself experiencing a mix of emotions.

Though he, very begrudgingly, admitted to himself that he would've conducted the same matters as his team did on braving Cybertron for Aulora's safety, he found the prospect of Aulora's predicament itself deeply disconcerting. He had believed days ago, that it was arduous enough to place the human under enough stress of a Telonian connection with himself. The trials and exhaustion that came with the responsibility on its own was troubling. He had despised the idea of placing one of his human allies under such discomfort and agitation, and would want to do anything in his will to lift that burden off of her shoulders. Now, to see that her new gift opened her up to possible foreign hostile forces only deepened the chasm of guilt the former archivist had built for himself. Though he knew full well that the Telonian connection between himself and the small, human femme was mostly out of his control and was no doubt set into action by universal forces out of his control as well, he troubled himself with the burden of her pain. Here he was, deemed worthy of the Matrix of Leadership to guide and lead the Autobots, and he could not keep a mere human ally from danger. Oh, how he had failed.

"As did I, but I can't seem to find them anywhere in here," Ratchet replied, momentarily pausing his loud escapade through his rather loaded and messy drawers to address the young human.

"But its adhesive tape. You guys don't really use that kind of stuff," the young human pointed out.

"Which begs the question if it was really a Bot who took it," Ratchet responded.

"Don't look at me," Aulora replied.

"No, my suspicions fall toward Miko," he stated matter-of-factly.

Aulora smiled at the medic. "What do you think she did with them?"

"Who knows! Do we ever receive a solid explanation for her antics?" he grumbled. Aulora couldn't help but stifle an amused giggle.

"I'm going to see if there are any in the asylum's supply closet before I contact June for another case," Ratchet explained, getting up from his crouch. He looked Aulora sternly in the eye.

"If I come back and you're not here, I promise to use the extremely strong cleansing agent on those burns later," he reprimanded, threateningly wagging his finger at the small human, though it only made Aulora's smile bigger.

"You got it, Ratchet," she replied. And with that, he was off in the other direction, heading down the hallway and out of sight.

Optimus saw this the best time as ever to walk into the main base. None of his teammates were there to worry over his currently exhausted state and he had a clean getaway to the ground bridge. He stepped out into the even brighter atmosphere of the main base, and he immediately found himself looking at Aulora. And though his mind was luring toward the ground bridge controls, ready to find something, anything, in Ratchet's scans to deem in need of a patrol sweep, his body was already starting to walks towards Aulora, his charge looking up, startled to find him.

"Optimus, you're awake," she quietly pointed out, watching her guardian slowly approach her, the Autobot leader still clearly exhausted. "How yah feeling?"

"Well, thank you," he replied, stopping just before her.

She smiled up at him and slowly slid closer to the right edge of the medical bay, lightly tapping the space next to her with her hand and looking expectantly up at the young Prime. He smiled down to her with gratitude and gratefully let his tired and weak body sit down and relax next to her.

_"Orion, you are making a grave mistake!"_

_"She is not worthy of the Telonian connection!"_

_"I order you to stay away from her, Orion!"_

_"Yes, she is nothing but trouble. Trouble, I say!"_

_"She will get into your mind Optimus. She will tear your brain apart, never by nerve!"_

_"She is a disgrace to the lineage of the Primes! She is an enemy of us all!"_

_"Yes! She wields the gift for Prima with impurity! She is a traitor!"_

_"Traitor!"_

The young Prime became enraged.

He, himself, fully condoned the torture the Wisdom of the Primes had put him through due mainly to his own festering guilt he had formed from his rather un-Primely-like actions. But to hear their voices condemn an ally, a mere human youngling for things he knew well she did not want to be a part of, things out of her domain of control, greatly angered Optimus. It was one thing to rebuke him, but it was another to criticize an innocent friend for a gift he knew, deep down, the other Primes were deeply jealous over.

_"She is a disgrace!"_

_"Orion, you are a fool to condone such treacheries against the lineage of the Primes!"_

_"She is not a Prime! She does not deserve a connection!"_

_"She is not worthy!"_

_"Orion, you must leave her!"_

_"Yes, Orion. You must let her go! She will only hinder your leadership!"_

_"She is blasphemy to us all! You must let her go!"_

_"She must be punished!"_

_"She should not be here!"_

Their voices were loud now, billowing across his head. They were deeply angry. He could almost feel the Matrix burning through his chest from the rage that scorched across their minds. Their voices drowned out any of his thoughts, replacing his mind with only their voices. He turned his eyes away from Aulora, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of looking at her. They only grew angrier.

_"Optimus, listen to me."_

The young Prime's eyes furrowed deeply in confusion. Who was that? None of the Primes had ever addressed him by his new designation, mostly due to the fact that they believed he was undeserving of the title.

_"Optimus, do not listen to them."_

Now the former archivist was deeply perplexed. He had never heard that voice before from the Matrix, yet the mech's voice sounded all too familiar. And it brought a beautiful, warming sensation to the young leader. Something about the mech's voice reminded the Prime of his former life as an archivist. It reminded himself of the days as a young pupil, a young mech so full of innocent curiosity. It reminded him of a life he missed so desperately. It reminded him of dreams he held for his future, dreams so far from the idea of fighting in the war. It reminded him of friends, many of them, who held innocent ambitions such as he did. It reminded him of long nights in the Hall, reading away the time. It reminded him of young love, of a soul he had met and had truly adored for all it was worth. It reminded him of a beautiful, young femme, and their fanciful dreams of starting a family in their fine city, on their beautiful planet, the thought of pain, or suffering, of war, far from anyone's mind, especially his own.

It reminded him of love. Of friends. Of family.

It was Alpha Trion.

_"You must not listen to them, Optimus."_

Optimus almost felt a wave of complete relaxation washing through his body.

Alpha Trion.

How long it had been since he had last heard his voice.

Alpha Trion had never wanted to join the Wisdom of the Primes. He had blatantly told that to the young Prime years into the war, where he was continually fearing an assault on the great city of Iacon. He believed in learning from experience. He continually reminded Orion and the young Optimus to never become dismayed from losses, for they were a lesson learned, a lesson he believed he would not be able to learn from the Primes entrapped in the Matrix, "guiding" him along the way. To become a part of a series of "very opinionated segments of advice from self-righteous academy kids" was not on the experienced archivist's list of things to accomplish.

But when Alpha Trion had sadly passed the day Iacon fell, a day his mentor had dreamt about for millennia before its occurrence, he begrudgingly joined his fellow brothers in the matrix of Leadership. And his voice became lost in the waves of offensive slander the others continually dished out. Optimus could always feel his mentor's spark continually fighting against the others, until they completely overpowered him altogether, and he never heard or felt him again.

Until today. And what a great day it was indeed.

And as Alpha Trion's prescience gently grew in his spark, he could feel the voices of the others slowly dying down to almost a whisper, his former mentor's voice radiating with power throughout his audio receptors and spark.

_"Look at her, Optimus,"_ Alpha Trion instructed.

The Prime turned back his charge, giving a gentle smile as he met her confused eyes.

_"Though you are just guardian and charge now, you are to become much more than that. Be to her, Optimus, as I was to you; a mentor, a teacher, a friend and a most importantly, family. She is the young Orion Pax, Optimus. She is the shy youngling with no parents and a destiny to fulfill that she could not even procure in her wildest dreams," _his mentor explained.

Optimus watched Aulora closer, as he listened to his mentor's voice.

_"You are just as important in her life as she is in yours. Never leave her, Optimus. With your minds now linked, both of your minds are now dependent on each other. If anything were to happen to the other, the results could be catastrophic."_

_"Be there for her Optimus. Just as you have suffered great tragedy, Optimus Prime, so has she. Be a rock for, as she no doubt will be one for you. Do not listen to the others. Be a friend to her as I once was to you. I wish you the best of luck, my apprentice. And please say hi to Aulora for me. Let her know that we will interact soon enough."_

Optimus shifted his gaze back to Aulora, the returning, thunderous voices of the extremely irritated Primes not enough to ruin the small, humble smile that had appeared on the young leader's face plates.

Maybe it wasn't a new family in the brilliant streets of Iacon with her and a child of their own. But it was still perfect.

She was his family now.

She looked begrudgingly at the small group of students around her, as she pulled her burgundy beanie further over her ears and leaned against the rumbling sides of the bus, the warmth of its engine slowly unthawing her frozen limbs. Her first observation was that most of them were wearing glasses. Though it could've just meant that the laziness and carelessness of winter vacation had finally gotten to them and they left behind the hassle of putting on contacts, Aulora knew better.

She was surrounded by nerds.

Though, in the predicament she was in, she probably could be considered one herself. Driving for 3 hours in a bus loaded with members of the Clean Air Club, the Environmental Club and two students that were failing biology up to a small forest reserve in Idaho for 10 extra credit points was definitely a good qualifier, especially when she could be at base with the bots for the remainder of winter vacation.

Not like a genius nerd, like Raf. But a goody-goody, always wanting good grades kind of nerd.

"Alright, kids. The first half of the day, you guys get to go exploring on your own. The park reserve has graciously closed off a small section of the park to allow you guys to explore and observe on your own. I want the first 2 pages of the packet I handed out on the bus to be completed before 4 o'clock, which is the time I want all of you back here, at the bus by. What was the time again?" Mr. Richards asked expectantly.

"4 o'clock," the group simultaneously repeated.

"Good. I'll allow you to break off into groups no more than 3 students each, or I'll let you go solo. But I want all cell phones turned on in case…."

The teacher continued to drone on after that, probably about how to use their first aid kit and the techniques of hugging a tree when you're lost, but Aulora zoned out after that.

One thing was for sue; she was doing this solo. It's not that she didn't like socializing. If any of the other human allies of Team Prime were there, she would've immediately buddied up with them. But she was still the new kid. She had only been at the school for about 2 weeks now, and she hadn't really spent time making friends. Though whether she wanted more friends or not was something she was still trying to figure out.

She was brought from her reverie when the rest of the students started grabbing each others' arms and heading into the thickly-vegetated reserve.

_Whoo_, she thought sarcastically to herself. _I picked trees over extraterrestrial robots. _

She shifted her rugged, red Jansport backpack further up her shoulder with an annoyed huff and continued out towards the dense wall of trees before her, purposely heading out towards the far left edge of the preserve, away from any of the other groups that had immediately chose the less denser route.

She began her scramble over the landscape, nimbly making her way over and under pathways and archways of thickly rooted and tangles trees that seemed to have a mind of their own.

She should probably be taking notes. Maybe about the texture of the leaves or the pattern of moss growth along the edge of the old trees, she didn't really know. She was about to reach back into her backpack and bring out her research packet and a pencil, when her ears suddenly caught the sound of a high pitched sound.

She immediately stopped dead in her tracks, straining her ears to pick up the sound. Sure, it could easily be one of the other students whistling or something, but enough practice in high-intensity situations with the Autobots was enough to put the young human immediately on edge, her muscles tight and rigid with fear and anticipation. She finally caught the noise again, catching the sounds of the high shrill traveling down from the sky. She peered up into the semi-blocked sky, but frowned when she spotted nothing, growing even more perplexed as the sound grew louder, as if it was approaching her.

She craned her neck further back, trying to encompass as much blue sky as she could. Above the high whistle, she was able to pick up the sudden and loud shrieks of the other students, as they less than gracefully, hurriedly hauled out of the woods.

But Aulora was cemented to the ground.

Though every, burning instinct in her body screamed at her to run, the sound growing louder and more painful with each passing second, Aulora was rooted to the ground, her legs unresponsive.

She suddenly whipped her head around at the abrupt snap of millions of branches and leaves, the whistling now unbearably earsplitting. She opened her throat to scream out to the trees in fear, as the seconds seem to pause. A oval-shaped mass much larger than Optimus himself, was hurtling its way towards Aulora, her mind already piecing together the fact that its landing point was merely inches from her feet.

With incredible speed, Aulora crunched her arms and legs together and pushed off from the ground, just as the mysterious, falling object landed with an immense explosion before her, ricocheting her flailing body feet from where she had expected…rather wanted to land. She gave a sharp yelp as her shoulder was the first to land, connecting hard with a fallen log, followed next by her side, legs and then head.

She waited patiently for her loopy stomach to gain balance and the intense pain in her shoulder to subside before she ever so slowly collected herself up off the ground, sitting up and taking in her surroundings.

She turned beside her, letting out another small scream as she came face to face with a large chunk of medal, embedded deep within the ground merely inches from where she had landed. She cocked her head curiously at a small blotch of red nestled amongst the layers of caked dirt and grime that had collected on the piece of metal. She tentatively reached out her hand and began to slowly wipe away at the filth, suddenly gasping as she felt her stomach wrench tight with fear and fall limp, not even fully finished with cleaning away the marking.

But she knew it too clearly. There was no need to finish cleaning away the dirt, but her numb hand did it anyway. The pointed audio receptors, the sharply-pointed head; it had appeared too often in her nightmares.

It was the Decepticon emblem.

Her heart suddenly ceased beating as she heard the sounds of metal ripping apart, shards grinding against others, the screeching ringing across the dead silent thicket.

Aulora swore against her dangerously intense curiosity as she peered her head out from behind the large shard before her, her eyes widening in disbelief at the sight before her.

Thick, soupy smoke rose from the dark, eerie painted form of what appeared to be an escape pod. With the main body in the shape of a smooth-pointed almond, in Aulora's opinion, the pod had two small struts that extended at an angle from the top of the pod, the half of which she realized was sitting in the ground right before her.

She slowly stood from the ground, rubbing at her still sore shoulder as her body electrified with paralyzing fear as her eyes met another set of bright, blue optics from her own.

Both human and Cybertronian released an ear piercing shriek, the mech standing to his full height from his crouch behind the shard, activating and training his blasters on the small, foreign life form. Aulora returned the hostile gesture by slipping Prevus's bomb out from her pocket and wielding it in front of her.

"What is this, some kind of sorcery!? Where did you take me!?" the mech yelled, his blasters twitching fearful with his every word. His voice sounded young and youthful, his rickety movements clearly those of a novice life. Aulora suddenly spotted a familiar marking on his chest plate and immediately stuffed her weapon back into her pocket and held up her open palms in surrender.

"Hey, hey…it's alright, I'm friendly, see?" Aulora exclaimed, lifting up the neck flap of her jacket collar to reveal the small Autobot symbol sewn in bright red thread. He eyed it suspiciously.

"You're an alien! How do I know you're just not tricking me!?" he demanded, his raised blasters now unsteadily shaking.

"I'm a member of Team Prime, lead by Optimus Prime. I mean you no harm, I promise," she replied carefully, knowing the obvious rookie before her would not hesitate to send out a fatal shot.

"Right, and I'm Optimus himself," he threw back, sarcastically, his eyes furrowing together even tighter.

"You sure don't look like him," Aulora responded with a small smile. _Aulora, you idiot!_ she thought. _This guy is ready to blow your head clean off your body, and you think contradicting him is going to help!?_

His eyes suddenly grew wide and his jaw dropped. His arms lowered at his side, and his blasters transformed back to his hands.

"You've seen Optimus Prime?!" he asked, stuttering with disbelief.

_You have got to be kidding me_, Aulora thought to herself. _This is what was fighting the war back on Cybertron? _

"Um…yeah," she answered.

His jaw dropped even lower.

"No way!? Optimus is my idol. And to be on the same planet as him and his legendary team…awesome!" he exclaimed, pumping an enthusiastic hand into the air.

Aulora turned hesitantly back to the pod. "What were you doing in a Decepticon escape pod?" she asked.

"Escaping a Decepticon loading vessel, duh," he replied, Aulora smirking at the clear resemblance between the new guy and a familiar, spunky Japanese teenager.

Suddenly coming to terms with the fact that she was in the middle of a tourist attraction, having a conversation with a 30 ft alien robot sent the young teenager hurriedly scurrying into her pockets for her cell phone. She flipped it open and was in the process of dialing the base's number when she heard the familiar sounds of a charged, Cybertronian weapon. She hesitantly peered up to see the mech's frightened face peering down at the cell phone in her hand.

"Easy, it's alright. This is my cell phone, ok? It's like a comm link. I'm contacting the Autobots right now to see if they can send us a ground bridge," she explained slowly. The tension in the mech's face seemed to ease, but he still kept his weapons on her. As she waited for an answer, she turned back up the young mech.

"My name's Aulora, by the way."

"Smokescreen," he said.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Smokescreen," she replied. She grumbled as Ratchet's clearly concerned voice rang through the speakers.

"Aulora! Are you alright!? We just picked up a pod's beacon traveling through Earth's atmosphere and landing right where we were picking up your phone's signal! Are you hurt? What happened?"

"Ratchet, relax! I'm fine. I don't think anyone saw us but I can't be sure. I'm here with an Autobot who claims to be Smokescreen, though I figured you'd want to investigate this first hand before letting him into base," Aulora explained.

"There's an Autobot there…with you?" he asked in disbelief.

"Look, can we continue our conversation until you get here? I'm afraid the kid's going to get lost."


End file.
